The fear factor

My Sunday Editor Ayaz Memon did well by listening to his friend’s advice. This is not the right time for Mumbai Muslims to sport a beard or a skull cap or anything for that matter that distinguishes them as Muslims. Post 7/11 blasts, there is an undercurrent of communal tension in the city. It erupts from time to time as Mumbai Mirror reported today.


Beaten up for no reason

Aditi Sharma, Mumbai Mirror, July 17

Even a week after the incident, Hamid Pir Mohammed Ghojaria (39) is yet to recover from the shock of being assaulted on a running train between Marine Lines and Churchgate railway stations for no fault of his.On that day, the Jogeshwari resident had gone to Marine Lines to submit his son’s college admission forms at Ismail Yusuf Trust. After completing the formalities, he decided to visit his brother-in-law who owns a watch shop near Churchgate. Around 5.15 pm, he went to Marine Lines railway station to catch a Churchgate-bound local.“As soon as I entered the train, I saw some commuters beating up a Pathani-clad man. Even before I could realise what was happening, two of the commuters saw me and started hitting me as well. They just kept saying ‘get out of this country, go back to Pakistan, you do not belong here, you are the ones responsible for the blasts in the city’,” says a shocked Ghojaria.The watch repair mechanic was all the more stunned when he was asked to take the name of Lord Ram and Lord Krishna. “When they started hitting me, I screamed ‘Allah’. That’s when they told me to call out to Ram and Krishna instead. They said they wouldn’t let go of me if I did not chant the names,” alleges Ghojaria adding that the mob even pulled his beard. The abuse stopped only when the train reached Churchgate terminal.“Nobody came forward to help me. I felt utterly helpless throughout. When the train came to a halt at Churchgate, all the commuters, including the attackers, simply walked away,” adds Ghojaria. After alighting from the train, he reported the matter to the police at the station, who first sent him to GT Hospital for a checkup and later registered a case under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 34 (common intent) of the Indian Penal Code against unknown persons in Ghojaria’s case. “Investigations are on, we should be able to locate the men soon,” Deepak Bagwe, senior inspector, railway police, Churchgate told Mumbai Mirror.
SECOND CASE OF ASSAULT: The other person who suffered a similar kind of assault was Malad resident Abdul Aziz Kandhal (34), a mobile accessories salesman. On that day, he was on his way to Marine Lines from Kandivli. “The train halted abruptly for 10 minutes outside Elphinstone station around 5 pm. Somebody started screaming that there was a bomb on the train. A majority of the passengers jumped off the train. I stayed put and continued to chant with my rosary beads,” he says.A few minutes later, some of the men sitting around Kandhal became abusive. “They said I was the one who must have planted the bomb. I tried not to react, but they hit me anyways. Seven-eight of them pounced on me, snatched my beads and started hitting me ruthlessly,” he says. Soon the train started moving and reached Mumbai Central.“I somehow managed to run away from the assailants and get off the train. I don’t know what those men would have done had a I sat in there a little longer,” says a visibly-shaken Kandhal. Immediately after getting off the train, he claims to have approached a policeman, who simply said there was nothing he could do to help. Scared and terrified, Kandhal abandoned his trip to Marine Lines and returned home.

It's the same in Delhi

I was wrong. I had thought that of all the metros only Mumbai had the dubious distinction of being anti-Muslim. Zia's brilliant article in HT Delhi was an eye-opener. Here's the piece.

‘We are not the Other’

Pushed into ghettos, branded, alienated, Muslims in the capital beg ‘target terrorism, not community’ as intelligence agencies come knocking

ZIA Haq.New Delhi

Nobody is happy in Batla House Chowk, an unauthorised locality deep inside south Delhi. Not the bearded fruit-sellers in its car-wide lanes. Not the recalcitrant youths huddled outside the government school, hemmed in by a flea market. Not even the cloth merchant, whose business has been rather good all this month. The vast Muslim ghetto in Okhla is actually simmering. And it mirrors others like Seelampur and even Minto Road in the heart of the Capital. Locals feel the search for leads to repeated terrorist attacks, like the Mumbai blasts, has landed the police and intelligence authorities at the doorsteps of innocent Muslims. And they could be the next to face the needle. "How could they say in five minutes it was SIMI, when it took them five days to confirm that RDX was used?" asks Fariq Anjum, a fabric-seller. There is fear even outside the ghettos. Sheikh Manzoor, the head of UNI's Urdu service fears for his son Adnan's life in Mumbai. A second-year engineering student of S.S. Engineering College, Adnan, has been held back by his parents even though his holidays are over. A suspended disbelief has taken over: intelligence agencies are targeting "Muslims, not terrorists". "In office, I feel guilty of being a Muslim. So I keep quiet. I feel as if I was one of the bombers," says 30-year-old Moonis Rehman, an English-speaking business executive with the Vasant Kunj-based tradeindia.com. Some pockets border on vengeance, as if they were a pressure-cooker of pent-up feelings without a safety valve. The detention of 11 tablighis (Muslim preachers) from Thane in Tripura on suspicion of being involved in the back-to-back train blasts has hurt them most. Everybody here is angry, especially people with Ansari for a surname. "Aisa lagta hai kal mujhe bhi terrorist karar denge, kyunki main bhi ek Ansari hoon aur main bhi Kashmir se taluq rakhta hoon (I fear tomorrow I may be branded a terrorist because my surname too is Ansari and I have my roots in Kashmir)," says 32-year-old Ibrahim, whose paan shop is much-sought after. A snaking lane leads to the large house of Rahaat Mahmood Choudhury, a venerable face of the locality and a senior functionary of the UP-UDF. "Target terrorists, not a community is all we say. Did you have to suspect a group of Muslim preachers only to give them a clean chit? We were distrustful of politicians. Now, even intelligence officials cannot be trusted," Rahaat says. In Seelampur, as dusk falls, mothers get worried over sons staying out late, especially those who venture out of the area. "It's better if they return home early. Situation is bad," says Dilshad Bano, a mother of three who has never read a newspaper. And why is the situation bad? "These are the days of bomb blasts, that's why," she says. Shackled by ghettos Majority of Delhi's Muslim population (2001 Census puts it at 6,23,520) lives in such community sprawls, the biggest being the Walled City. There are five Muslim legislators: Pervej Hashmi (Okhla), Choudhury Matin Ahmed (Seelampur), Tajdar Babar (Minto Road), Shoab Iqbal (Matia Mahal) and transport minister Haroon Yusuf (Ballimaran). All represent ghettos or parts thereof. Ghettos don't just give Muslims a living space. These give them security and a sense of belonging. But living in such surroundings may not be a natural choice. Jamia University professor Rizwan Kaiser had just finished his studies in JNU in 1991, when he started to hunt for a house in the Munirka area. He never found one. Hindu landlords gave peculiar excuses. "So ghettos are often a matter of compulsion not choice. People move in for reasons of culture, security and convenience." According to the Economic Survey of Delhi of 2001, 2.6 million people lived in slums, and only 1.7 million and 3.3 million lived in regularised and planned colonies, respectively. Living in a ghetto is not a pleasant experience for many. For one, the density of population is high. Civic amenities are even poorer there. And you can find a university teacher, a well-to-do businessman and a butcher living uncomfortably as neighbours. "As a result, social negotiations suffer," Kaiser says. And worst, during riots, a Muslim will be left to fend for himself in a ghetto, Kaiser adds. "That's what happened to Irfan Jafri during the Gujarat riots". Kaiser doesn't have a problem if police arrest SIMI activists or LeT militants for the blasts. "I don't really care, as long as they don't use the word Muslims. Terrorists have no religion." Most people especially outside the slums don't look at organisations like SIMI with any sense of approval. They will "die for secularism". But Urdu journalist Anees Jamee feels the responsibility of being secular lies on the majority. "Secularism majority ki zimmedari hai, minority ki majboori (Secularism is the responsibility of the majority)". He sums it up in a brilliant irony: The lot of a Hindu in Delhi's Muslim-dominated Batla House Chowk and a Muslim in Hindu-majority Rohini is same. Both are in the minority, both without a voice.

A Dalit woman as a priestess

A Dalit woman. Twin disadvantages of caste and gender. Shantha Kumari overcame all that to do what she believed was right. This is her story. A CNN-IBN exclusive.

A woman priest for Lord Ayyappa

Priyanjana Dutta

CNN-IBN
Bangalore: Lord Ayyappa is yet again amidst controversies.
After Sabarimala, it’s now the turn of Ayyappa temple in Kolar district in Karnataka to face trouble.
There was a great uproar after Kannada actress-turned-producer Jayamala had claimed to have entered the sanctum sanctorum of Sabarimala and touched the feet of the idol of Lord Ayyappa 19 years ago.
In the Kolar temple, Lord Ayyappa is being worshipped by a woman priest, and a dalit at that. She is Shantha Kumari.
"When God is with us nobody will raise objections," says Shantha Kumari, priest of the Lord Ayyappa temple.
Shantha Kumari is a strong and confident woman who wears many hats. She is a Karnataka Administrative Service officer and a self-proclaimed priest of the temple that she and her husband have constructed.
The Shantha Malai Ayyappa Swamy temple in Kolar district, about 100 km from Bangalore would have been like any other were it not for the fact that it was built by a dalit woman who is also its chief priest.
"After our return from Sabarimala he (Lord Ayyappa) came to me in my dream and he asked me to construct the temple he's my family member," says Shantha.
Built on a 4-acre plot, the temple is like a virtual fortress and has been around for 6 years.
Shantha Kumari says she built the temple on her own and not only does she manage the temple's affairs but also performs all the pujas in the sanctum sanctorum everyday.
"We didn't take the services of anybody like priests, vastushilpis (craftsmen) and engineers. I constructed the temple with the services of ordinary labourers and with the instructions of Lord Ayyappa, my husband and myself. I have taken the role of a mother. I not only do the pujas but also all the other work of the temple."
The Shantha Malai Ayyapa Swamy temple proudly proclaims that the Lord Ayyapa is the third son of Shantha Kumari and her husband.
Which is one of the reasons, Kolar residents believe, that Shantha Kumari has decided to do away with man made rituals like prohibiting women inside the temple.
And while this temple allows everyone including women, it isn't all that egalitarian.
"Every time women enter our temple, they will have to take permission. All the Sabarimala rituals and practices are followed," says Shantha.
But her views are not shared by all.
"The sanctum sanctorum where Ayyappa is placed is more revered place and the other temples have come up after that because of the cult of Ayyappa. Though I am an advocate of women's rights, but I feel these kind of traditions should not be broken," says an artist Yusuf Arakkal.
Hundreds of devotees throng the little known temple even as the debate around the Sabarimala controversy refuses to die down.
It’s ironical that women aren't allowed in Sabarimala while at Shanthamala, it's a woman priest who holds fort.

Caste away in Queen's Land

This one I dug out of the Guardian archive. Caste discrimination in UK???? Yes, it's there too.

Caste divide is blighting Indian communities in UK, claims report

Government urged to act to help 500,000 Dalits

Problem is exaggerated, argues Asian MP Hugh Muir

Tuesday July 4, 2006The Guardian
They are communities that live together, look alike and share a common background. To the uninitiated, there is no discernible difference. But a report will today claim that many Indian communities in Britain are blighted by caste discrimination. Researchers detail claims that many of the 50,000 Dalits in the UK - once known as India's lower-caste “untouchables” - suffer discrimination from other castes in terms of jobs, healthcare, politics, education and schools.
In a report likely to provoke bitter controversy, researchers were told how couples who marry outside their own caste face "violence, intimidation and exclusion". The study, No Escape - Caste Discrimination in the UK, focuses on domestic discrimination, although campaigners are also trying to force British firms with commercial interests in India to outlaw practices unfair to Dalits. The government has promised to consider the issue in forthcoming legislation and to look at claims of discrimination against lower-caste Gurkhas in the British army.
David Haslam of the Dalit Solidarity Network, who organised the research, said the group had spoken to 130 people for the study. "Dalits across the UK felt that within the Indian community, their identity was based on caste and that the caste system was very much in operation." He said respondents called for caste discrimination to be addressed in schools as part of the national curriculum and for the establishment of more temples open to worshippers of all castes. Eighty-five per cent urged the UK authorities to "work towards the elimination of caste discrimination".
Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North and a Dalit Solidarity Network trustee, said he was aware of caste discrimination abroad but was "horrified" to "realise that caste discrimination has been exported". He added: "This is an issue which the government and all those concerned about good community relations need to address."
The former mayor of Coventry, Ram Lakha, told researchers how he faced discrimination from upper-caste voters when seeking election in a largely Indian ward. "During campaigning I was told that I would not get people's vote as I was a chamar [a derogatory name for Dalits]. So I filed my nomination in a non-Asian constituency and was able to win." He said it was customary for the Indian community to honour each new mayor - yet his achievement had not been recognised in that way. "Everyone in the Indian community knows how things are. It is there, and it will take a long time to die out. I recently discovered from my children that they suffered difficulties at school. It is only now, because the issue is being raised, that they chose to tell me. Given everything that has happened, I am very proud and thankful to God for what I have gained."
Harbans Lal Virde, general secretary of the west London religious association Buddha Dham, said he also faced workplace difficulties. "The non-Dalits in my community objected to my promotion and did not support me in my work. They did not like me as a supervisor. The non-Dalits presume that 'chamars' are good for nothing." One respondent, who asked to remain anonymous, said it was difficult to confront the problem. "At work there is no open discrimination; it is usually discreet. Most of the businesses are small - if you complain, the person who will listen to your complaint is from the higher caste, so no action is taken."
Researchers say some barriers are breaking down. In India, Dalits and non-Dalits rarely eat together, but 81% of those questioned said the restriction did not usually apply here. Piara Khabra, MP for Ealing Southall, accused researchers of exaggerating the extent of problems: "It is a big issue in India, but not here. There is a broader community and different traditions. People live happily together." He said many complainants may claim caste discrimination mistakenly or for political reasons. "I am the MP and people come to me who are from the lowest castes."
In one employment tribunal case alleging discrimination based on caste, a factory worker claimed he had been unfairly disciplined at work and then dismissed because non-Dalits complained about him. In another, a healthcare worker claimed he was victimised when his supervisor, who had been friendly, discovered his caste.

To be a Muslim in Mumbai

What does it mean to be a Muslim in Mumbai at times like these? Even at the best of times, a Muslim name is a huge handicap. I am talking about Mumbai, not Bombay. Bombay was cosmopolitan, carefree. An inclusionist city that embraced all castes, colours, communities. Mumbai is quite the opposite. Minorities live in ghettos. And not always by choice. Even Muslim Bolllywood actors---and some big names too (Shabana Azmi said on national television yesterday that she was denied an appartment in a posh suburban locality because of her religion)---are discriminated against. Samar Harlankar's piece in Hindustan Times pointed out the plight of Muslims in the city who live in fear after any terrorist attack. Is a suspected terrorist's daughter also a terrorist? Just because she is of a particular religion. The popular perception is every Muslim is a suspect, a terrorist in disguise. "As a liberal Muslim what is your take on the blasts?" my friend Indranil asked the scriptwriter Javed Akhtar. Wrong question buddy. I could see Javed going red in the ears. "What is a liberal Muslim, may I ask? Is it a given that Muslims are generally fundamentalists and Hindus secular?" Akhtar countered. Indranil had no answers.
The danger of seeing oneself, or others, through singular identities (Hindu/Muslim, Marathi/non-Marathi) is, as Amartya Sen points out, that it can easily degenerate into Us Vs Them thinking. In extreme cases, like the train terrorists of Mumbai, it can lead to mayhem. In Gujarat, similar thinking led segments of the Hindu population to presume that the Godhra train fire could only have been the result of a Muslim mob setting fire to the Sabarmati Express. As a subsequent enquiry showed, there is an equal chance that the fire could have been an accident. But Narendra Modi pandered to Hindu insecurities by using deadly identity politics for his own political ends.
Sen’s basic proposition is that we have several identities. And we choose these identities. Identity is not something we are born into, though some aspects of identity—race, gender—may be predetermined. And the more one keeps stressing one identity over others, the more one is likely to sink into feelings of exclusivity and unconnectedness with the other. So, if you stop stereotyping entire communities, identity-based violence should start declining.

Leaps of faith for a better tomorrow

April 16, 2006. Published in DNA

Can a new faith bring with it a new life? Mohammad Saleem Adil, a 47-year-old lawyer based in Delhi, says it can. A decade-and-a-half ago, Adil was Satbir Jathav, a Dalit who had been enduring years of social discrimination. Then he decided to embrace Islam.
“There was a need to connect, to not be persecuted for being born an untouchable,” he says. “This was possible, I found out, in the same lifetime, but only by discarding Hinduism. I was an outcast all my life. Then, after converting, I felt like I finally belonged.”
Thousands of miles away, in the Burdwan district of West Bengal, primary schoolteacher Jyotirmoy Mondol embraced Buddhism around the same time. The 35-year-old’s reason: in a neighbouring shanty, a Chamar family was publicly beaten up by locals for allegedly skinning a live cow.
“Economically they were much below me,” he explains, “but socially we belonged to the same strata. I could not sleep for nights after that incident. The conversion was like a rebirth; I felt at peace with myself. The stigma of being a lowly-born was no more.”
All Dalit conversions, though, are not knee-jerk reactions to caste inequities or discrimination. Dalit intellectual Chandrabhan Prasad cites the example of the backward castes of Meenakshipuram in Tamil Nadu, who for seven long years discussed the issue of conversion before giving up on Hinduism.
“In 1981, to free themselves from untouchability and police harassment, 150 Dalit families from this village in Tirunelvelli district embraced Islam; Meenakshipuram became Rahmat Nagar,” he recalls. “With conversion came wealth and several of them got jobs in the Gulf counties.”
There are other instances. From being an entirely marginalised community of toddy tappers and coir weavers who were not allowed into upper-caste Hindu temples and whose women were supposed to leave their breasts uncovered, the Nadars of Tamil Nadu gained immense socio-economic mobility by embracing Christianity in big numbers in the late 18th century.
This was the community that would engender achievers such as the late Tamil Nadu chief minister K Kamaraj, the Amritraj brothers of tennis and Shiv Nadar, founder of the HCL group of companies.
There is another side to the conversion argument, one advanced most forcefully by the Hindutva brigade. This is that moving to another faith brings about no discernable change in the way society treats Dalits: whether you are a Dalit Buddhist, a Dalit Christian or a Dalit Muslim, you were, are, and will remain a Dalit.
“The Hindu right-wing argument is that Dalits learned the futility of conversions long before the advent of ‘foreign’ religions like Islam and Christianity,” says Kolkata-based social anthropologist Bibek Sinha.
“Those who converted to Buddhism to escape social ostracism reconverted to Hinduism to avail of the benefits of becoming dwija [twice-born] through good karma in the present birth.”
Delhi-based journalist and minority rights activist Anis Jamee says ‘foreign’ religions like Islam and Christianity have been, over the years, Indianised.
“Even after you convert, your caste identity remains with you.” But Sinha prefers to focus on the benefits. “Christianity offers the most goodies to the Dalit,” he says, “and with proselytising comes the exposure to Western education.”
“The inequalities are not as stark as in Hinduism, and untouchability, the worst of human indignities, is definitely not followed in other religions,” contends Prasad. “The fact is that most Dalit converts today are happy with the new faith they have embraced. In 1956, over 5 million Dalits, led by Ambedkar, renounced Hinduism and became Buddhists to escape from the caste system. Ideally, Hinduism should be cleansed from within. But that is another story. Till then there are other gods to turn to.”

‘Institutes like IITs and IIMs should be closed down’

April 09, 2006. Published in DNA

Mandal is back. With the news that a crore a year has just become slightly less dear for the B-school grad, came the rider that it may soon become that much more difficult for a general category student to make it to IIMs, IITs or central universities. The government is considering a proposal to reserve 27 per cent seats there for those applying under the OBC quota. There has been an instant uproar in the corporate sector and the student community. Most are sniffing political opportunism in the move. But there is another side to the debate. In an exclusive interview to DNA, author of Why I am not a Hindu? and one of the country's foremost Dalit intellectuals Kancha Ilaiah says this was long overdue.

The Election Commission has, on Saturday, sought an explanation from HRD Minister Arjun Singh over the Centre's proposal to reserve seats for OBCs in IITs, IIMs and all central universities, saying he has violated the model code of conduct before the Assembly polls. Do you see this as yet another instance of populism that has run riot?
Well, it is true that after L K Advani decided to go on yet another Bharat Yatra and that too before the assembly polls, the Congress needed a game plan to counter it. Hence, they decided to push for reservation. But there is nothing wrong, per se, in declaring a policy decision. The Constitution has already been amended for the purpose. Elections in the five states are a separate issue and should not be affected by a proposal that is yet to be implemented. The opposition to the proposal only exposes the casteist and racist mindset of those who are opposing it. Even the EC is not free from the malaise. Today or tomorrow, the government had to introduce reservation because that is what the Constitution says.

The IITs and IIMs are successful brands and have gained international recognition. If Mandal replaces merit, wouldn't their brand equity suffer?
We should close down the IITs and the IIMs as they pander to the upper-caste economy of the country. Those who pass out from these institutes use their technical and managerial skills to earn dollars abroad. Are they using their skill sets to the benefit of the agro-based economy of the country? Tell me, with rising incomes of our B-school graduates are farmer suicide rates coming down? So what is the use of such education if it cannot be put to any use within the country or for the uplift of the majority of the population who live in villages?

But can this not lead to reverse discrimination? There is a lot of resentment for the quota candidates for what is often perceived as an unfair advantage that they have over others?
In the book, The Shape of the River, William Bowen and Derek Bok argue for more racial diversity in the US' student population. Today, because of affirmative action in the US, the entry of coloured people in the education, employment and political systems are being increasingly ensured and has benefited their society. There is no reverse discrimination there. In India, on the other hand, there is no democratic space for the SC, ST and OBCs. This move was long overdue.

But even the US policymakers are not in support of reservation. Can there not be any other form of affirmative action than caste-based reservations in jobs and educational institutions?
Reservation is absolutely essential. But there should also be other forms of affirmative action. Successive governments have failed to implement the constitutional promise of introducing free and compulsory education after independence. There should be mass English language primary schools for Dalits. There should also be reservation in the private sector. We will soon take to the streets to ensure that.

Finally, would the move benefit the OBC students themselves? There are examples galore of quota students dropping out of such schools of excellence as they cannot cope up with the pressure.
This is incorrect. When you say backward caste students are not good enough, you display a casteist bias. When I was the head of the political science department of Osmania University, a Dalit student had secured the highest marks. Backward caste students are generally discriminated against in these premier institutes. Instead of providing them a leg-up, they are made to feel unwanted. Given a favourable condition and a fair chance, they can do as well as the others.

NCERT woos Dalit writers

Published in DNA on January 11, 2006

Alex Haley, author of Roots, once said:"History has been written and stored predominantly by the winners." The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) wants to change that.
In a bid to sensitise students on the evils of the caste system that has plagued Hindu society for centuries, the council plans to introduce works of Dalit writers in school text books.
The project, to be executed in two phases, will include works of relatively unknown Dalit writers like Om Prakash Valmiki. The Class XI Hindi literature textbook will accommodate Valmiki's Khanabadosh. "Till date the NCERT has only had upper caste writers in the school curriculum. Even when it came to depicting the plight of the Dalits, we had to rely on works like Godan by Premchand, an upper caste man," says Ram Janam Sharma, head, Department of Languages, NCERT.
The council has now concluded that a Dalit's trauma is best told by a Dalit himself. "Hence, we have planned to include works by Dalit writers in the Hindi literature course in classes I, III, VI, IX and XII. Apart from Valmiki, we are planning to introduce works of writers like Jyotibha Phule," Sharma says.
There is a question mark on this move though. Is the council, plagued as it is by a string of controversies after the alleged saffronisation drive and distortion of history, opting for a populist move? "This is a welcome move only if the spirit is correct," says Rahul Rai, founder-director of the Indian Institute of Human Rights, New Delhi.
"Forget BIMARU states. Even Left-liberal West Bengal has a history of caste discrimination in primary education. Pratichi Education Trust's survey report on West Bengal's primary education mentions that 75 per cent of teachers belonging to higher and middle castes believe that children of SC and ST communities are less intelligent and less motivated than their upper caste counterparts. There is a need not just to caste-sensitise students, but teachers as well," adds Rai.
"In a village in Birbhum district in West Bengal," says Rai, "Brahmins were reportedly not sending their children to the Shishu Shiksha Kendra as they have to study with the low-born Dom children. There is need, therefore, for the oppressive history of Dalits to be made known and an attempt made to stop further caste oppression."
Among Dalit intellectuals, the move has evoked mixed response. The worry is, says Jyotirmoy Mondol, a Dalit activist who runs a school for Dalit children in Purulia district in West Bengal, this move by the NCERT smacks of populism.
"NCERT's saffronisation drive during the tenure of the NDA was not only anti-Muslim, but also anti-Dalit. To counter that, the present government wants to adopt a pro-Muslim/pro-Dalit stance. The Dalits have always been a reliable votebank for the Congress. They are simply playing to the gallery," he says.
"To let students become aware of centuries of oppression that Dalits had to face, a confessional history by the upper castes would have been more effective," Dalit writer Chandrabhan Prasad says. "In the US, writings by whites on racism have been taught for years. That helped reduce any opposition to the government's social justice schemes for the coloured people."
"Stories of Dalit oppression, written by Dalits themselves, may read like sob stories. Moreover, Dalit history is a serious subject. The NCERT should have consulted Dalit intellectuals and historians before undertaking such a move," Prasad says.

'I don't approve of today's Naxals'

Published in DNA on May 1, 2006

It is difficult to imagine Kanu Sanyal as a pacifist. An icon for those who dreamt of social change through armed struggle, Sanyal, along with leader Charu Majumdar and comrades-in-arms Jangal Santhal and Krishna Bhakta Paudial, had, nearly 40 years back, spearheaded the Naxal movement in Bengal. When the movement failed, Santhal died a broken man. Majumdar was ‘killed’ in police custody. Sanyal, 77, lives a quiet life in Naxalbari, a sleepy hamlet in North Bengal, from where the movement had originated and spread like wild fire. In a telephonic interview, he says killing of innocent civilans by Naxals like in Chhattisgarh on Saturday is unpardonable.

Q) 40 years back, the war cry of Naxalites was: “China’s chairman is our chairman.” China has changed. It is said China is communist politically and capitalist economically. So what powers today's Naxal movement?
I accept that the slogan was completely incorrect. Why should we think of Mao Tse Tung as our chairman? It was coined by Charu Majumdar and voiced by the comrades. But that's a minor issue. The problems that gave rise to the Naxal movement at that time were very real. There was a need to take up the cause of the landless farmers. There was a need for an agrarian revolution. Those problems persist even today. And that is what powers Naxalism.

Q) In the late 60s, many students were taken up by the Naxal ideology. Today, their dream is to earn a crore a year, the new benchmark in corporate salary. Waging a class war is the last thing on their mind. How can you make a revolution succeed when the youth are totally disinterested?
After the fall of the Soviet Union, there was a crisis in the Communist movement internationally. China also changed track. But the death knell of the Communist movement hasn't been sounded yet. Look around you. Farmer suicide rates are going up, so-called developmental projects are displacing thousands, MNCs are destroying traditional livelihoods. During the late 60s, college and university students from well-to-do families took to Naxalism. They sacrificed promising careers to pursue a dream. Today, the situation is much worse as there is more inequality. I am sure the youth will not remain cut off from reality for long and would want to change the way things are.

Q) In Naxal-related incidents in recent times, the rate of civilian casualty has gone up. This was something the movement in the 60s strictly tried to avoid. Why target innocent civilians? There are two issues here. Firstly, if there is an armed struggle, there will be casualties. I definitely don't approve the killing of innocents. But then sometimes innocent villagers get accidentally blown up by landmines that were put to annihilate class enemies. Or maybe they die in crossfire. That is unfortunate. Mindless violence, though, should be strictly avoided. There have been cases where Naxals have reportedly killed innocent villagers for turning against them. This is unpardonable.

Q) In South Chattisgarh and in other states, ordinary villagers are becoming special police officers. Villages were your strongholds. Today, even villagers are turning against you.
This is a disturbing trend. Because villages, truly, are our strongholds. If villagers are turning against the Naxals, it is a major cause of concern for the movement. There is a need to mobilise villagers, to show them the path, not antagonise them. Cases have been reported of villagers being tortured when they have refused to do join the movement. In this respect, I do not approve of today's Naxals.

Q) In late 60s, Naxals had no training camps and used hand-made pistols, but captured popular imagination. Now, you have Kalashnikovs and proper co-ordination, but no popular support. Today, even Naxalbari votes. Democracy has made a great comeback at a place where it had lost its moorings. Explain.
I don't agree with this. It would be wrong to say that Naxals today have no popular support. Yes, at times they commit excesses, there may be individual cases of corruption also. But how can you say there is no popular support? The movement has spread far and wide. Surely, there must be support for the movement.

Q) Finally, looking back, would you agree you had dreamt an impossible dream?
The dream of establishing a people's democracy in its true sense still remains.

My Capital, their's too

Published in the Pioneer on May 29, 2004

This is the way it isn't - tropical weather, a penthouse suite in the Mediterranean, champaign and caviar, and a blonde in bed between sinfully black satin sheets.
This is the way it is - unbearably hot, a barsati in Kalkaji, stale food and cheap beer, and definitely no blonde between black satin sheets. Life in Delhi can be difficult.
My maid disagrees. Twenty-two-year old and a mother of two, she is an economic migrant like me. Came from Bihar two years ago and made Delhi home. Something I haven't been able to do yet. The city's been good to her, she says. Gave her a job, a shed and hope. Most importantly, independence.
Basanti's story bears no novelty for me. It's been happening to "them" since the beginning of time itself. It's a story of poverty, of exploitation, of nights of going to bed unfed, uncared for. Of being a part of a family of seven. With one earning member - a father who tills someone else's land for a lark. "He had incurred huge debts. We had to mortgage the small tract of land that we had," Basanti remembers. And then there was the social stigma. Of being a shudra. Strange how belonging to a particular caste takes away the right to drink from the same well. Or being treated by the village doctor. Basanti's elder sister had died of typhoid. "The doctor won't come. He was an upper caste. And we had no money to pay."
Her story is a masala mix. The complete tear-jerker. The landlord, of the pot-bellied, hukkah-smoking kind, offered to help out. With a little help from Basanti in return. The good man wanted some help with the libido! So Basanti ran. With her husband. To another city. Delhi. Another life.
I roll my joint and look at Basanti. How time passes. This woman, when I first saw her, was but a pale shadow of her present self. She came to me a year back, looking for work. My landlady, who I famously get along with for the free cups of tea and mostly unwanted advice she offers, had asked me to employ her. "Very hardworking beta, very honest. And very, very needy. Give her a job." Basanti's been doing the chores since then.
She had a husband and a baby when she started working for me. She had another in between. I was surprised, angry. "What's wrong with you people. You can't take care of yourself properly. How will you manage two kids?" She had only smiled, the proud mother. But manage she did. Took up work in three more households. The husband got himself a job with a garage. They have managed a one room shack in the neighbourhood shanty. "A pucca makaan is what I want now. For the kids. And education. Don't want them to grow up like us. The city will take care of them. Like it did for us," she says dreamy-eyed. I nod.
Maybe, just maybe, it'll give me the blonde as well.

Witch by branding

Published in the Pioneer Edit Page on April 19, 2003

Strange are the ways of the media. Recently, while film actor Vivek Oberoi's freak accident hogged headlines for weeks on end, issues demanding immediate attention were ignored or relegated to the anonymity of the inside pages. One such news was an attack on and humiliation of a tribal woman, branded a 'witch'. A resident of Guna, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh's home district, Ratnabai was accused of casting an 'evil spell' that allegedly led to the death of a one-year-old. She was forced to consume pig's excreta as punishment.
The woman was declared a witch after the village priest, to whom the ailing child was taken for treatment, failed to cure her. He informed the harried parents that the spell of a witch was the reason for the child's illness. Ratnabai was identified as the witch and subjected to severe punishment, which included eating pig's excreta, as the child died the following day. Such is her condition that the poor woman refuses to go back to her village and has taken refuge in her parent's house in a neighbouring village.
But why was Ratnabai singled out? Is it because of a property dispute or the result of a tussle between her family and the village priest? There being no follow-ups to the story, such questions remain unanswered. What became evident though is the fact that the evil of 'witch-hunting' is very much a reality in the country.
In the interiors of States like Bihar and West Bengal, 'witches'-or 'dains' as they are called -and their children are still hunted and killed. One of the least talked-about acts of violence, the murder of individuals and entire families accused of witchcraft is common in other States too, such as MP, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. From 1991 to 2000, over 522 cases of witch-hunting have been registered in Bihar alone.
Sociologists say it is not superstition that is at the root of many of these accusations of witchcraft, but socio-economic factors like land-grabbing, property disputes and personal rivalry. The strategy of branding a woman a witch is also used against women who spurn the sexual advances of the powerful men in the community. In many cases, a woman who inherits land from her deceased husband is asked to disown it by her husband's family or other men. If she resists, they approach ojhas (traditional village doctors) and bribe them to brand her a witch.
Lack of healthcare facilities and legal support in villages add to the problem. Bihar is one State that did pass an anti-witchhunting act 1999. But on the whole, this evil remains a frightful social reality. It is difficult though to make reliable estimates, since cases of witch killing are not registered under a separate category.
In many Adivasi communities, women have greater rights to land. Often, in her attempt to exercise these, a woman may find herself declared a witch and thus robbed of her property rights. It is not always the woman's family that is involved. When the woman is unprotected, a widow or a single woman, there is no dearth of people with an eye on her land, who are ready to use the services of the ojhas.
Atrocities of such a nature are just one of many malfunctions that characterise a developing society as ours. It is crucial that the media re-evaluate its priorities and push vital developmental issues to the top of their list, vis-a-vis fluff and mere entertainment. By relegating such issues and causes to the sidelines as fillers in the inside pages, the fourth estate is guilty of insensitivity and of abdicating its social responsibilities.

By himself, for the community

January 25, 1986 is a date Martin Macwan will remember for the rest of his life. For it was on this day that he narrowly escaped being killed. It was on this day that four of his friends were shot dead by the feudal Darbars in Gujarat, against whom they were crusading. Martin was 40 km away at Nadiad town.
Hearing the news, he rushed back. Weeping inconsolably, he swore, "Your death will not go in vain." It did not.
Martin and a group of friends were already working for the uplift of Dalits at Golana, and several other Gujarati villages, when the tragedy struck. Born to a widowed tobacco worker mother, Martin, a Christian Dalit, had seen poverty and caste discrimination ever since childhood.
Starting out as a farmhand to help support his family, and attending night school, he completed his primary education. A scholarship helped him get into St Xavier's college, Ahmedabad. While at Xaviers, he worked with Pakistani refugees in the Banaskantha district and tribal children in south Gujarat. He then teamed up with a few of his friends and resolved to put an end to the cruelty of caste bondage.
They carried their struggle to the remotest villages in Gujarat, educating the Dalits and fighting for their rights. But his friends' deaths made Martin resolve that he would carry on his struggle on a much bigger scale. He was only 26 then.
The next few years, Martin pored over every legal text available and ensured that the 14 killers were sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1989, the angry young man launched the Navsarjan Trust to carry on his crusade. His mission being to address issues of violence, land rights, minimum wages, women's rights, and poverty.
Today, the Navsarjan Trust is a membership-based grassroots organisation working in over 2,000 of Gujarat's villages, covering 34 talukas in 11 districts. It conducts its activities through 187 full time activists (87 of them being women), who have a local base, have been trained professionally, and have established their credibility with local communities. It is the largest organisation in the state addressing Dalit rights, and its experiences have been the source of inspiration for the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights.
"Ultimately, it is the resolve of the community to raise itself to dignity that is going to end caste-based discrimination, our hidden apartheid," says Martin.
A notable contribution that Martin and his fellow crusaders have made to the cause of Dalit uplift is their fight for the rights of "human scavengers". Eight years after the death of his friends, Martin had himself another shock.
He saw members of a community in Surendranagar district carrying human excreta on their heads. They were cleaning out what the rest of the village left behind. "Mahatma Gandhi called for an end to the practice a century ago. There is the notion of making it a 'noble' profession. But which other community will apply for the job?" he asked. Navsarjan went to court, asking for the abolition of manual scavenging, and continues the effort to rehabilitate the community.
"Bhangi, door bes" (scavenger, stay away), is a common refrain even today. Martin recalls how one scavenger's child, only nine years of age, was blinded, in Dhandhuka taluka, for touching a paanwallah's paan box, thus "defiling" it. Martin is still fighting the case and is desperately hoping to find a specialist who will work a miracle and save the boy's eyes.
Martin's crusade has also brought him international recognition. He received the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award 2000, instituted by the RFK Memorial Centre for Human Rights, Washington DC. The award is given annually to those who, at great personal risk, stand up to oppression in the non-violent pursuit of respect for human rights. Remarked Senator Edward M Kennedy, as he presented the award to Martin.
"Martin Macwan is a rare voice of tolerance, non-violence and effectiveness. Today, in honouring Martin, we also honour those who selflessly campaign for the downtrodden throughout the world."

Prisoners of gender

Published in the Pioneer Edit Page on April 30, 2003

A recent media report on the auction of two tribal women in a Panchayat in Madhya Pradesh for marrying outside their caste has rightly outraged many. What was perhaps more shocking was the fact that a section of the intelligentsia tried to justify this heinous crime on the grounds of 'custom' and 'tradition'.
On January 3, 2003, Basanta and Devaki Bai were sold for Rs 8,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively to bidders by the Bhil Samaj Sudhar Samiti in Gowari. There were 18 others who met the same fate. The women concerned were asked to lower their pallus and to stand with stones on their heads, so that the libidinous men who bought them could gauge their appearance and gait. Those whom no one bid for were slapped with heavy fines and made to stand with huge stones on their heads for the entire day. For the endogamy-practicing Bhil tribe, this was a way of bringing all Bhil women living with men outside their caste back into the fold.
One opinion column in a news weekly said that members of the educated elite tended to be "ill-informed about the customs, traditions and (the) contemporary life situation of the diverse people and communities in our own country". It was said the auction indicated that the Bhil villagers could at best be accused of practising a distorted version of tradition: That of the groom's family offering gifts to the bride's family at the time of marriage. The writer further stated that, while he did not endorse the actions of the Bhil Panchayat, he would not "recommend handing over such sensitive issues to the police"!
In a country where lower caste women suffer double discrimination on the basis of caste and gender, such views are atrocious, to say the least. According to reports of several human rights organisations, the authorities have failed to prevent violence against women and often take an active part in it. An Amnesty International report highlights the patterns of violence- including beating, stripping and rape of women- in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. It focuses particularly on Dalit and Adivasi women, their lack of access to justice and the state's failure to protect them at the local level.
This is not to say high levels of violence against women are not widely acknowledged by the authorities and that no steps are being taken to address these problems. Yet the fact remains officials at the local level continue to ignore complaints, take bribes, and cover up the abuses.
Police are also widely accused of withholding and destroying evidence in many cases, usually at the behest of the accused with whom they may have caste or other links. Witnesses often withdraw their testimony after taking a bribe or being threatened by the accused, and medical evidence is lost because simple procedures are not followed. The length of time it takes to pursue a case of torture through the courts demoralises the victims, who then make compromises under pressure.
Women activists in India have played a crucial role in highlighting the problems faced by women, but they are often punished for it, becoming victims of violence themselves. Under such circumstances, human rights violations should be immediately reported to the police and swift action should be initiated by the latter. The media, on its part, needs to play a proactive role in educating the masses instead of misguiding them by displaying caste and gender biases. Defending one's 'custom' and 'tradition' is no doubt commendable, but that should not and cannot be at the cost of basic human rights.