Women and Poverty

Women and Poverty

Freedom from the culture of subjugation and oppression

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

In the country of one billion people over 24% of the population belong to Dalits and tribals. Nearly 80% of the Dalit population in India lives in villages and very interestingly the gender ratio is about 936 women per thousand men, which is slightly higher than the national average.
Dalit women suffer from double disability in our society. The first disability of being woman is doubled with the caste tag over head. Women remain the most 'sought after' 'object' in our society and 'honour' of our families. Her honour is a subject of contention between warring brothers, avenging communities and destroying civilization. From Gujarat to Kashmir, the honour of women became the major issue in our uncivilized world. Even where there is no war, the powerful peasantry with inexplicable caste identities kept women subjugated for years despite her contribution both at home and at the field. It is therefore not surprising that great green revolution of India ultimately strengthened the hand of feudal patriarchy resulting in greater gender chaos in the region. Since agrarian reform had never been feminised and farmer's movement in India caged in the confines of upper caste feudal patriarchy and any voices of dissent are muzzled with atrocious caste consciousness. Today, women are short in supply in Haryana, Punjab, western Uttar-Pradesh and still the caste Panchayats are playing their dubious role by organizing Kangaroo courts for those who try to challenge the status quo. Ultimately, it is the woman who becomes victim of such notoriety of the system. Therefore, cases like Imrana, should not be seen as a problem of the Muslim society. It would be absolutely farcical to confine Imrana's story to an issue of Muslim society. Imrana is the symptom of greater gender discrimination prevalent in the feudal social system of Western Uttar-Pradesh irrespective of religious identities. These actually reflect the feudal pattern of our social system.

Dalit women suffer from double disability in our society. The first disability of being woman is doubled with the caste tag over head. Women remain the most 'sought after' 'object' in our society and 'honour' of our families. Her honour is a subject of contention between warring brothers, avenging communities and destroying civilization. From Gujarat to Kashmir, the honour of women became the major issue in our uncivilized world.

Even where there is no war, the powerful peasantry with inexplicable caste identities kept women subjugated for years despite her contribution both at home and at the field. It is therefore not surprising that great green revolution of India ultimately strengthened the hand of feudal patriarchy resulting in greater gender chaos in the region. Since agrarian reform had never been feminised and farmer's movement in India caged in the confines of upper caste feudal patriarchy and any voices of dissent are muzzled with atrocious caste consciousness. Today, women are short in supply in Haryana, Punjab, western Uttar-Pradesh and still the caste Panchayats are playing their dubious role by organizing Kangaroo courts for those who try to challenge the status quo. Ultimately, it is the woman who becomes victim of such notoriety of the system. Therefore, cases like Imrana, should not be seen as a problem of the Muslim society. It would be absolutely farcical to confine Imrana's story to an issue of Muslim society. Imrana is the symptom of greater gender discrimination prevalent in the feudal social system of Western Uttar-Pradesh irrespective of religious identities. These actually reflect the feudal pattern of our social system.

The war for land and water is still not over and promises yet to fulfilled by respective governments but the new forms of discriminations and colonisations have begun. It is acknowledged by the UN Secretary General Kofee Annan in his report that nearly 25 million people have become displaced due to various internal factors while 20 million people have been killed due to various diseases like HIV AIDs. In the trouble torn state of Kashmir, one can see the miserable condition of women whose husbands, and children are killed in the violence.Whether it is to sustain culture or values, women are the foremost to be used in the wider patriarchical design of subjugation. Therefore modesty, chastity, culture and values are specific to women's world. Every time, she tries to cross them or come in conflict with them, the cries are loud enough to rock our political system. If one has to find a malnourished child in our families, one could easily finger towards the girl who has to do all work at home and yet remain hungry for the full day. It is not surprising that it is women who become victim of 'spirit' and other such practices in our villages. In Tsunami, a majority of women died because men could throw away their lungis when the water forced them to swim while women's modesty took their lives. For them throwing away their Sarees and Petticoats would have become too immodest to face the world hence they could not swim.

The cultural oppression and social subjugation result in limiting the economic development and opportunities to work out. Who would allow his wife or daughter to work out if she report the other day that a colleague passed some remark on her appearance. In most of the cases, women are asked to sit back. So the policy of the existing social system is to hit the victim and kill her self-esteem.But despite all this, the changes are visible in Dalit women whose case history is something different than the upper caste women. The middle class upper caste women, who never worked on the field or came in open due to their own purdah system, were always told

' women from respected families do not work out'. Dalit women have always worked on the field hence going in open with purdah was their culture. Even Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar when first burnt Manu Smriti in 1927 as a mark of protest against racial and gender prejudices in the book, at Mahad, had to rely heavily on women. One of the progressive side of the Dalit movements is that women became an inherent part of it though patriarchy was also visible there in the movement yet not to the comparison of the brahmanical system. Dalit women retaliate and are not told to sit and depressed. Therefore, the revolt of Phoolan Devi is an example. She fought for her dignity and rights. Could we imagined if any middle class upper caste Hindu family would allow their daughter to fight back and not die in humiliation? Recently, Mayawati lit the pyre of her mentor Kanshiram in Delhi, sought to break away from the age-old hold of the patriarchy during such time. By performing the last rites she has send the signal that Dalit political leadership does believe in changing and not glorifying everything which is traditional in the name of culture, such as upper caste Hindu women leaders have always done. Despite a powerful woman, Indira Gandhi always wanted to visit the 'Jagannath temple' and could not fulfill her wish.

This social bias again women results in our day to day life. Hence whether it is the Panchayats or any other government schemes, women have not got their due. We Indians are expert in finding our ways out without breaking our system. Hence when we thought that 33% reservation for women would bring a remarkable change in our life, our men used their social status ( pati devo bhav) to dupe their wives. So once they lost their seats to women, they fielded their wives (preferring wives is a clear option over other females like daughter, mother) as she would obedient more than any other. Since, it is said that husband is your God whatever big you might be in social-political life. So the revolution failed because women are just rubber stamp and husband an unaccountable Laloo for whose sins Rabri would have to pay.Many of us thought that with the advent of market many things would change, life of women become free and independent yet this disillusionment is growing. The results are threatening. Market is hitting at our social structure but at the same point of time strengthening the puritan cultural values, which destroyed dignity of women. Market glamorizes oppression and rituals related to women. Therefore, we see a sudden growth of festivals, which people considered as degrading to women. Question is market have always objectified women and therefore trapped them in another stereotype that women are good for certain thing and not for everything and these include look better in providing 'hospitality' as they smile better and on the ramp. We make them feel that it is their freedom

It is therefore important to understand that the new economic paradigms are killing more and producing little. The issues of displacement and deforestation again put the clock back as 'family' comes first and women despite all our courage comes back to the family, to save it and to take care of it. In 1990 Nobel Laureate Octavo Paz, in his acceptance of the award said ' The market economy.. cannot be simply a cause for joy. As a mechanism, the market is efficient, but like all machines, it lacks both conscience and compassion. We must find a way of integrating it into society so that it expresses the social contracts and become an instrument for justice and fairness.The advanced democratic societies have reached an enviable level of prosperity at the same point of time they are islands of abundance in an ocean of universal misery. A society possessed by frantic need to produce more in order to consume more tends to reduce ideas, feelings, art, love, friendship and people themselves to consumer good. Everything becomes an item to be bought, used and then thrown on the rubbish dump..India is a signatory to convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Apart from this, we have ratified many other international treaties yet a lot remain to be done. We have one of the finest constitution of the world which gave women right to vote even at the time when many others in the 'developed' world were struggling to get the same. Our constitution says equal pay for equal work. We had a woman prime ministers and many ministers. We have women chief ministers and a lot. Yet, violence against women continues, unabated. Our laws become redundant when issue of woman comes to the fore. We have dowry laws and now the Domestic Violence Act.

We have given 'property rights' to women and yet she suffers a lot. In this cruel world of subcontinent, under pressure from a civilised world, we have done everything to look secular as well as civilized and yet when the issue of implementation comes, it is a matter of great disappointment. It is therefore important to understand that the new economic paradigms are killing more and producing little. The issues of displacement and deforestation again put the clock back as 'family' comes first and women despite all our courage comes back to the family, to save it and to take care of it.

A woman is a woman but we tried to define her in terms of her relationship and use this emotion to serve patriarchy. Her identity as a woman is overshadowed by her identity as a mother, sister, wife or a daughter. Constitutionally, we might be a democracy but that democratic spirit has really not crept in our social life, which remains socially oppressive and culturally brutal. Our forefathers did what they could have by providing us a secular progressive constitution yet very few of them thought the keys to success of model constitution lies somewhere else. In our social fabric which remain compartmentalized and thoroughly regimented, and, where our morality differ from each other, writ of the constitution need to be strengthened. It is quintessential, therefore, that the moral values erupt from secular and progressive outlook and not to subjugate those voices of freedom and liberty.

Dalit assertion in Maharastra on rise

Khairlanji's Dalit Victims want justice with dignity

Democracy must serve the Dalits as it survives due to their participation
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The fire of Khairlanji in Bhandara district of Maharastra refuse to recede and has now entered in Delhi also. At the India Social Forum 2006, Dalit organizations led by National Conference of Dalit Organisations, NACDOR, held a strong demonstration at the Jantar Mantar where a large number of human rights activists, Dalit activists from different parts of the country expressed deep anguish and wanted immediate punishment for the tormentors of the heinous crime against humanity.

Chhaya Khobargade, who has been actively involved in the agitation felt that the congress government has not taken any action against the guilty. Instead it is taking action the activists who have been staging protest against the incident. ' If the Maharastra government does not take action against the culprits, the situation would go out of hand,' she warned.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Nitin Chaudhury, Convener, NACDOR, Maharastra asked the R.R.Patil, deputy chief minister of Maharastra must apologize from the Dalit community for his irresponsible utterances. Former Union Minister Sanjay Paswan also expressed his solidarity with the agitating members. At the Dalit sector meeting in ISF2006, Mr Ashok Bharati, Convener, National Conference of Dalit Organisations expressed deep anguish over the attitude of Maharastra government which he termed was no different than the fascist government of Gujarat led by Narendra Modi. Bharati warned that Dalits would not rest silently if there dignity continue to be attacked by the upper caste goons. He also blamed the organizers of the World Social Forum with prejudices against the Dalits. While Protests in Delhi continues and more so because United Dalit Student Forum in JNU along with other students organizations are planning massive protests against Mahrastra government's inaction. In Bhandara people expressed their anger against the visit of Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh who offered a job to the relative of the deceased family. ' We want honour and dignity and not job, was the categorical answer from the family. It is the tribute to Ambedkar's campaign for human Rights and dignity that dalits consider it too small to bargain a massacre of a family with a job. That may be possible in the Hindu system and not with enlightened Ambekarite Buddhists.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Nitin Chaudhury, Convener, NACDOR, Maharastra asked the R.R.Patil, deputy chief minister of Maharastra must apologize from the Dalit community for his irresponsible utterances. Former Union Minister Sanjay Paswan also expressed his solidarity with the agitating members.

At the Dalit sector meeting in ISF2006, Mr Ashok Bharati, Convener, National Conference of Dalit Organisations expressed deep anguish over the attitude of Maharastra government which he termed was no different than the fascist government of Gujarat led by Narendra Modi. Bharati warned that Dalits would not rest silently if there dignity continue to be attacked by the upper caste goons. He also blamed the organizers of the World Social Forum with prejudices against the Dalits.

While Protests in Delhi continues and more so because United Dalit Student Forum in JNU along with other students organizations are planning massive protests against Mahrastra government's inaction. In Bhandara people expressed their anger against the visit of Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh who offered a job to the relative of the deceased family. ' We want honour and dignity and not job, was the categorical answer from the family. It is the tribute to Ambedkar's campaign for human Rights and dignity that dalits consider it too small to bargain a massacre of a family with a job. That may be possible in the Hindu system and not with enlightened Ambekarite Buddhists.

It is beyond any body's belief how four family members of Buddhist Dalit family were butchered to death mercilessly by the upper caste hegemonists of Khairlanji village who wanted to grab the land of this Dalit family. 'The Panchayat had already taken over about 2 acres of land in the name of common passage for the village and the upper caste were pressurizing that the family also get out of remaining 3 acres of land, says Sujata Parimita, a women's rights activist from Mumbai. How brutal and inhuman could these upper caste be, is reflected in the nature of the killing. Surekha ( 44 years), her daughter Priyanka 18 years, sons Rakesh 23 years and Sudhir, 29 years were first pulled out from their hut and stripped naked. According to Sujata and Chhaya Khobargade, 'these women were stripped naked by the uppercaste women'. Those women's right activists must understand who say that 'women do not have caste. Not all women are equal. Upper caste women can never understand the plight of Dalit women from their caste prism and would have to shed those prejudices before claiming to work for women's right movement of all. Surekha's sons were also stripped and asked to rape their mother and sister when they refused to follow, they were hacked to death. One of the son named Sudhir was a physically challenge person. Later, the mother and daughters were also raped and killed. Their bodies were found next day with brutal marks of killing on their body, lying naked.Now, the attempt to wash the entire thing has already begun. The police says that they are not getting any eyewitness of the event while the medical report does not make a rape case. It is shocking beyond doubt, as Sujata Parimita says, 'when the Delhi High Court cold send Santosh Singh to the gallows using circumstantial evidences, why is police in Bhandara not doing its work and collecting the circumstantial evidences. Moreover, some of the family member including Surekha's cousin Siddhartha Gajbhiye have already told police what he saw on that fateful day. What does the naked body indicate?' The upper caste feudal police is not interested in resolving the crisis. Siddhartaha was a political activist and living in another village and Surekha had contacted him to help her as the upper castes were putting a lot of pressure on them to relinquish the 3 acres of land that they possessed. To get rid of the intervention, the villagers alleged that Surekha had an illicit relationship with Suresh. But even if that was true, why the hell these upper castes were concern about that ?

It is beyond any body's belief how four family members of Buddhist Dalit family were butchered to death mercilessly by the upper caste hegemonists of Khairlanji village who wanted to grab the land of this Dalit family. 'The Panchayat had already taken over about 2 acres of land in the name of common passage for the village and the upper caste were pressurizing that the family also get out of remaining 3 acres of land, says Sujata Parimita, a women's rights activist from Mumbai. How brutal and inhuman could these upper caste be, is reflected in the nature of the killing. Surekha ( 44 years), her daughter Priyanka 18 years, sons Rakesh 23 years and Sudhir, 29 years were first pulled out from their hut and stripped naked. According to Sujata and Chhaya Khobargade, 'these women were stripped naked by the uppercaste women'. Those women's right activists must understand who say that 'women do not have caste. Not all women are equal. Upper caste women can never understand the plight of Dalit women from their caste prism and would have to shed those prejudices before claiming to work for women's right movement of all. Surekha's sons were also stripped and asked to rape their mother and sister when they refused to follow, they were hacked to death. One of the son named Sudhir was a physically challenge person. Later, the mother and daughters were also raped and killed. Their bodies were found next day with brutal marks of killing on their body, lying naked.

Now, the attempt to wash the entire thing has already begun. The police says that they are not getting any eyewitness of the event while the medical report does not make a rape case. It is shocking beyond doubt, as Sujata Parimita says, 'when the Delhi High Court cold send Santosh Singh to the gallows using circumstantial evidences, why is police in Bhandara not doing its work and collecting the circumstantial evidences. Moreover, some of the family member including Surekha's cousin Siddhartha Gajbhiye have already told police what he saw on that fateful day. What does the naked body indicate?' The upper caste feudal police is not interested in resolving the crisis. Siddhartaha was a political activist and living in another village and Surekha had contacted him to help her as the upper castes were putting a lot of pressure on them to relinquish the 3 acres of land that they possessed. To get rid of the intervention, the villagers alleged that Surekha had an illicit relationship with Suresh. But even if that was true, why the hell these upper castes were concern about that ?

Complaints were lodged in the police and yet no action was taken. Dalits waited for so many days even no media or the government officials visited them. It took nearly over a month and half when the patience of the Dalits boiled. And what one saw in the streets of various parts of Vidarbha was this Dalit frustration with rule of law. The government did not act but tried to shield its officials and politicians involved in the case.It is more shocking that the high profile Deputy Chief Minister R.R.Patil was busy issuing statements on two counts. One his party has been going overboard over party president Sharad Pawar's alleged'insult' by the Australian players. ' We respect our elders', was the general cry of the political activists in Maharastra. 'We must make the Australians apologize for they do not know what actually the culture is? If the Australian media had known and seen the Bhandara incident and how Indian media reports then they would have probably said that 'your culture is to publicly rape a woman and her daughters in front of her sons and do not ask for justice.' That atrocious upper caste prejudice is still prevalent in Mahrastra and that there is no outrage in the country is itself an outrage. This incident is a grim reminder of how our social system function and whether the Dalits should now not blow up that super structure of democracy which gives one person equal voting right to elect our parliament or assemblies yet do not consider them equal.

Complaints were lodged in the police and yet no action was taken. Dalits waited for so many days even no media or the government officials visited them. It took nearly over a month and half when the patience of the Dalits boiled. And what one saw in the streets of various parts of Vidarbha was this Dalit frustration with rule of law. The government did not act but tried to shield its officials and politicians involved in the case.

It is more shocking that the high profile Deputy Chief Minister R.R.Patil was busy issuing statements on two counts. One his party has been going overboard over party president Sharad Pawar's alleged 'insult' by the Australian players. ' We respect our elders', was the general cry of the political activists in Maharastra. 'We must make the Australians apologize for they do not know what actually the culture is?' If the Australian media had known and seen the Bhandara incident and how Indian media reports then they would have probably said that 'your culture is to publicly rape a woman and her daughters in front of her sons and do not ask for justice.' That atrocious upper caste prejudice is still prevalent in Mahrastra and that there is no outrage in the country is itself an outrage. This incident is a grim reminder of how our social system function and whether the Dalits should now not blow up that super structure of democracy which gives one person equal voting right to elect our parliament or assemblies yet do not consider them equal.

But Dalits taking the street for justice is not new in Maharastra particularly in Nagpur. The state apparatus has always shielded the corrupt upper caste officials, goons who exploit Dalits. There is pain and anguish and to say that it is the work of Naxals is again to relieve oneself from the responsibility. Maharastra's police is considered to be efficient yet it could not fill a sense of confidence among the Dalits. The political class did not find time to visit the place. In fact some of the people have blamed a BJP MLA's involvement in the entire incident.In the 50th year of Dhammachakra parivartan, thousands of people have already embraced Buddhism and standing tall with their new found enlightenment. The Bhotmanges family of Khairlanji was also a Buddhist and learnt to live with dignity which was not accepted by the upper caste Hindus. Their assertion was attacked in the most fascist manner of any system. One does not find parallel to such cruelty, may be during the Nazi assault on the Jews at the concentration camps in Germany.

R R Patil ordered a CID inquiry into the Nagpur incident but not what happened at Bhandara's Kharilanji village. Every body knows how an inquiry proceeds to save the skin of the political leaders. State CIDs are nothing but government's own mindset and Patil has already said that the entire incident of fire and rioting in Nagpur was orchestrated by the Naxal groups. Politicians seldom introspect therefore to expect that Patil and his cohorts would respond responsibly on the issue would be miraculous.

But Dalits taking the street for justice is not new in Maharastra particularly in Nagpur. The state apparatus has always shielded the corrupt upper caste officials, goons who exploit Dalits. There is pain and anguish and to say that it is the work of Naxals is again to relieve oneself from the responsibility. Maharastra's police is considered to be efficient yet it could not fill a sense of confidence among the Dalits. The political class did not find time to visit the place. In fact some of the people have blamed a BJP MLA's involvement in the entire incident.

In the 50th year of Dhammachakra parivartan, thousands of people have already embraced Buddhism and standing tall with their new found enlightenment. The Bhotmanges family of Khairlanji was also a Buddhist and learnt to live with dignity which was not accepted by the upper caste Hindus. Their assertion was attacked in the most fascist manner of any system. One does not find parallel to such cruelty, may be during the Nazi assault on the Jews at the concentration camps in Germany.

The government is discussing things in home ministry about the growing influence of Naxalites in Chandrapur and other parts of Maharastra. This year during the 50th year celebration of Ambedkar's conversion, our friend Sunita Narain of Danish Publications, Delhi was arrested by Chandrapur police for 'clinching' evidence of her 'linkages' with the Naxalites. Sunita has a book stall, at the festival ground, which include Bhagat Singh's memoirs, a book written by Babu Ram Bhattarai, Nepal's Maoist leader, some others like Dr Ambedkar's work on riddles of Hinduism etc. She was released only on the condition that she would be available for further interrogation.One would ask the ministers in Maharastra whether selling literature of revolutionaries any crime and as reported by Sunita, the police officer was asking her ' Why she sale Bhagat Singh when India has already become a democracy'. Yes, India is a democracy of the upper castes where they learn Gandhigiri from a bollywood film but do not use it in their public life. Even Gandhi would have wept and cried seeing his 'followers'.Dalits love literature. It is beyond doubt that Dalits today read much more than the upper caste Hindus study. All the revolutionary writings are liked by Dalits. Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar has given them strength of conviction and character and therefore they go crazy to read literature of revolution. Dalits are going for revolution. Embracing Buddism is itself a revolt against the dominant caste culture of India. Dalits have saved Indian democracy. When the upper castes were busy in their work and money, Dalits voted in the slums and streets. What did they get in return? That their leaders are also purchased and co-opted by the mainstream.

The government is discussing things in home ministry about the growing influence of Naxalites in Chandrapur and other parts of Maharastra. This year during the 50th year celebration of Ambedkar's conversion, our friend Sunita Narain of Danish Publications, Delhi was arrested by Chandrapur police for 'clinching' evidence of her 'linkages' with the Naxalites. Sunita has a book stall, at the festival ground, which include Bhagat Singh's memoirs, a book written by Babu Ram Bhattarai, Nepal's Maoist leader, some others like Dr Ambedkar's work on riddles of Hinduism etc. She was released only on the condition that she would be available for further interrogation.

One would ask the ministers in Maharastra whether selling literature of revolutionaries any crime and as reported by Sunita, the police officer was asking her ' Why she sale Bhagat Singh when India has already become a democracy'. Yes, India is a democracy of the upper castes where they learn Gandhigiri from a bollywood film but do not use it in their public life. Even Gandhi would have wept and cried seeing his 'followers'.

Dalits love literature. It is beyond doubt that Dalits today read much more than the upper caste Hindus study. All the revolutionary writings are liked by Dalits. Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar has given them strength of conviction and character and therefore they go crazy to read literature of revolution. Dalits are going for revolution. Embracing Buddism is itself a revolt against the dominant caste culture of India. Dalits have saved Indian democracy. When the upper castes were busy in their work and money, Dalits voted in the slums and streets. What did they get in return? That their leaders are also purchased and co-opted by the mainstream.

Dalits respect constitution of India because Dr Ambedkar drafted it. Anything that links Dalits to Baba Saheb has an emotional value.We gave a political constitution which suggested two people are equal but in social life, what Ambedkar mentioned during those days, that the two people are not equal. Manu Smriti still rules India. WE must not forget how the Dalit women in Nagpur taught Akka Yadav a lesson of his life. Yes, Yadav was a local goon who would go to any house and ask for the prettiest girl to entertain him. For long the Dalit women tolerated his activities. Also, they realized well that the Akka Yadav had wide political connections and would get release once arrested. After lots of protest Yadav was arrested but the activist got to wind of the police that he might be let off to torture them again. And the massive crowd that swelled in the campus of the local court in Nagpur where Police brought the accused in the van, the crowed attacked Yadav and his friend and killed them on the spot. That was social justice that Nagpur women wanted for them. They were not interested in long arm- twisting tactics of the court and the police which ultimately made them victims and hence they killed the notorious gangster.

Very unfortunately the Maharastra government has not learnt any lesson from the same. It still feels that delay is the best way as people would forget the incident. It would be foolish to think in those terms. The anger of the Dalits in the Maharastra is for her dignity and honour and no government can do away with it. The golden edifice of Indian democracy would not survive if Dalits do not get justice in India. They have already tolerated humiliation heaped upon them related to their integrity, merits, reservation and everything. It is a wake up call for the government failing which they would only lose their credibility and masses would follow what they believe in like what happened to Akka Yadav. Government must not wait and act immediately to get the victims justice otherwise it will have to heavy price for which India at the moment is not prepared and cannot afford.

SEZ and the protests

Rural storm over SEZs exposes chinks in the ruling system

By P. Raman

The ever deepening confusion about the special economic zones clearly reflects the state of affairs in which the nation finds itself. When the bill to set up the SEZs was adopted no one had anticipated it will lead to such massive protests across the country. It was virtually a unanimous passage with the Left expressing reservations over the possible curbs on labour rights within SEZ. Some members did talk about the need for taking care of the farmers’ rights. But it was so casual and general.

Now every political party, every player in the whole game, feels they have been taken unawares by the sudden show of protests from almost everywhere. The commerce ministry, which had initiated the grandiose programme, suddenly climbs down to rewrite the rule book, and asserts no fertile land will be acquired for setting up SEZs.

Instead of protesting, even the business bodies now endorse the suggestion that the land owners should get adequate compensation and three-crop land should not be used for the purpose. Two aspects of the SEZ muddle the widening cleavage between political bosses and the masses and the executive’s despotic style of decision making are worth noting. When the SEZ bill was passed the general expectation was that a couple of zones would be opened in each state.

More would be launched after assessing their performance. No one had thought that as many as 225 SEZs or is it over 350? will be allowed at one stroke on well over 80,000 to one lakh hectares.

The turn of events has made the Congress establishment bitter about what some of them describe its government’s brinkmanship. There is lot of difference between coping with the farmers’ problems with a couple of SEZs and facing the embarrassment of agitations in such a large number of places. This was what had made Sonia Gandhi (who is now increasingly opening her own direct channels with the party’s grassroots leaders) to come out with her snowballing declaration on the non-use of fertile land for SEZs.

Those close to the party establishment say that Kamal Nath, himself a seasoned politician, should not have lost balance. He should have anticipated a severe rural backlash. A little interaction with those outside the bureaucracy and economic technocracy might have convinced him about the pitfalls ahead.

Instead, he and the omnipresent Montek Singh Ahluwalia took the SEZ-in-eachblock idea as a great economic revolution on which the Congress Party could sweep the polls. It was similar to the NDA’s `golden triangle’ highway and Promod Mahajan’s `Shine India’ dream.

Before the Sonia snap came, hardly did they recognize that it was the greed for cheap land under the Land Acquisition Act that had led to the SEZ revolution. Even the leading industrial houses had taken into account the windfall land gain while working out the cost. Such strategic miscalculations do happen in an atmosphere of isolated government functioning.
Ministerial bureaucracy under the post-reform era has been part of the belief that a government’s job is to enforce the globally ordained economic prescriptions.

Under this concept, dialogue with the opposition or own party establishment will only delay the reform schedule. The more the cleavage between the party establishment and a globally committed ministerial bureaucracy, the more the government gets distanced from the mass of voters. This has been the experience of Tony Blair to Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Political mishaps could be avoided only when the party establishment which is normally less prone to global pressures, is able to strike a fair balance between the governmental action and voting public’s responses. The party establishment as a watch dog account for the long survival of the Left government in West Bengal.

The other factor the growing disconnect between the political parties and the people they represent has its origin in the bureaucratic style of political functioning. In the present case, even the Left has got it off-guard despite their preoccupation with the Tata unit in West Bengal.
In each case, the SEZ protests had come from the affected farmers and landowners. The political class realized the `potential’ only when gram sabhas passed resolutions and put up their own resistance.

Incidentally, some politicians made quick balance sheets of farmers’ vote strength and the industry contributions and the complexion of the new SEZ population. Spontaneous protests came from Raigad (Maharashtra), Ekvira Zmin Bachao Andolan in Pune, Gujars and Jats in Dadri and several parts of Haryana. The magnitude of the rural storm in terms of voter power is really startling.

For Realiance’s Mumbai SEZ alone, acquisition notices have been issued to one lakh land owners. On this basis, the number of affected land owners for the already approved 280 SEZs will be 2.80 crores. Total vote strength of these families will be more than 8.5 crores. Adding the farm labour and other dependents, it is going to be a huge disgruntled block which no political party can ignore.

Incidentally, the first target of the farm protest has been the Left government in West Bengal where initially even the front partners joined the protests. Even the Congress Party has joined hands with Mamata against the Tata land purchase. The Brand Buddha had to retreat and new incentives were to be offered to the farmers and farm labour. In UP, the upsurge is both against the SEZs and Ambani’s power plant.

Raj Babbar’s Jan Morcha led by V.P. Singh and supported by such parties as the CPI, Ajit Singh, is competing with JD(U) president Sharad Yadav’s new front. Yadav has the support of Apna Dal and Akalis. Sonia Gandhi’s sudden fatwa on the SEZs has been the direct consequence of the popular ire in the poll-bound UP where Rahul Gandhi is set to lead the Congress.

Sharad Yadav has also contacted the Left and BJP for a wider national front against the SEZ misuse. He will organize a bandh on October 12. Medha Patkar is organizing a `JanAndolan’ under the banner of National Alliance of People’s Movements. A large number of intellectuals, including Arundhati Roy, attended her conclave.

The SEZ protests have raised certain valid questions. Why should the government acquire land at a cheap rate for private owned projects? How can the government prevent misuse of the land for multiplexes, malls, entertainment parks and housing complexs which have nothing to do with exports?

Can the farmers and farm labour expect jobs in the SEZs when more competent workers claim the posts under the competitive ambience? Lack of firm answers to such valid questions provide more grit to the protests.

Acknowledgment : www.samachar.com , October, 14th, 2006

India's Shame : Children Continue to die of Hunger

India ranks 3rd from bottom of the world on malnourished kids
Sonu Jain

Posted online: Saturday, October 14, 2006 at 0000 hrs Print Email

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 13: Yet another report confirms India’s losing battle against hunger. In the Global Hunger Index, India ranks 117th for the prevalence of underweight children. Only Bangladesh and Nepal are worse-off.

Overall, India is ranked 96th out of 119 countries covered by the index, which doesn’t paint a rosy picture per se. But India comes off far worse in its record for malnutrition in children, as measured by body weight.

The proportion of children found underweight in India, according to the latest figures is 47.5 per cent, which makes it worse than conflict-plagued, drought-stricken Sub-Saharan Africa, where the figure is some 30 per cent on average. India’s figure is also worse than that of individual Sub-Saharan countries.

These findings are from a report released globally today by the Washington-based International Food Policy Institute (IFPRI). The Global Hunger Index combines three indicators: child malnutrition, child mortality, and estimates of the proportion of people who are calorie-deficient.
The index has been calculated for 1981, 1992, 1997, and 2003. The latest round ranks 119 countries, of which 97 are deemed “developing” and 22 “in transition.” Speaking to The Indian Express on phone from Washington, the report’s lead author Doris Wiesmann said the two major factors for India’s low ranking were that per capita food availability did not increase from 1997 onward, and that child malnutrition rates remained at very high levels, with more than 46 per cent of children under five years being underweight.

India is a different story from Sub-Saharan Africa. A higher proportion of the population (33 per cent) is calorie-deficient there than in India (21 per cent) or South Asia as a whole (22 per cent). The sub-text to India’s dismal showing is malnutrition in children under five. “Mothers, who are usually children’s primary caretakers, and their education, nutritional knowledge, well-being and status in families and communities are particularly important in this respect,” said Wiesmann. The results are a direct fallout of the low status of women in Indian society, several earlier studies have pointed out. “In India, women eat the last and the least, increasing the chances of anaemia,” she explained. This practice partly explain why 83 percent of women in India suffer from iron deficiency anaemia, as opposed to about 40 percent in sub-Saharan Africa.
Not surprisingly, one-third of the babies born in India are born with low birth weight, compared to one-sixth in sub-Saharan Africa. “It has been observed that the women who have a say in the family, allocate more resources to their children’s nutritional needs. Men have other priorities,” she said. There have been other studies that have explained India’s presence as a hotspot despite its growing GDP. Lisa Smith, a IFPRI research fellow, and Usha Ramakrishnan, Associate Professor at Emory University, identified three factors contributing to the nutritional status gap between South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa in a recent study.
The first, making by far the greatest contribution among the three, is women’s status, followed by sanitation and urbanization. The implication for policy is clear: in the interests of improving child nutrition, women’s status should be raised.

The study also concluded that in regions where women’s status is low, programmes to improve child nutritional status would have more lasting impact when combined with efforts to improve women’s status. India has a large programme that aims to provide supplementary nutrition for children called the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).

Studies have shown that preventing child malnutrition in the most critical phase of child development between six months and two years is more effective than targeting children under the age of five once they have become malnourished. By the time a child has developed signs of malnutrition, the damage may already be irreversible.

Curtsy : Indian Express, New Delhi, October 14th, 2005

Release Bhupendra Singh Rawat from detention

Stop treating dissenters as criminals by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Hundreds of activist joined in a symbolic protest in the Uttar-Pradesh Bhavan, Delhi against the illegal detentian of Shri Bhupendra Singh Rawat, a farmer leader and member of National Alliance of People's Movement. Bhupendra Rawat was very active in the movement for creation of separate state of Uttaranchal. Lately Bhupendra has been working in Delhi's slum againast their eviction.

Bhupendra was the main force behind the farmer's uprising against Reliance Industries. He initially went there on a fact finding team to investigate into the matter of police manhandling of sitution on the previous night of Shri V.P.Singh's visit to the area and later decided that the people would have to be organised to protest against this loot of national resources.

The result was that the people's protest against the illegal grabbing the most fertile land of INdia by one of the most notorious industrial houses in India got momentum. After former Prime minister V.P.Singh took up the issue, the issue of Special Economic Zone ( SEZ) has now acquired importance in public debate. Dadari today symoblised farmers resistance against the onslaught of the looters, builders and leaders together.

Fearing this, the Muluam Singh Yadav government of Uttar-Pradesh unleashed a rein of terror in village Bajhara Khurd. Farmers are not allowed to even venture out of their houses. PAC has surrounded the villages. Even the children are not spared.

Yesterday's protest at UP Bhavan was symbolic and as Medha Patakar rightly moaned how a person who publicly spoke against WTO at the anti WTO platform, Mulayam Singh yadav's socialist credentials are now questioned. Ambanis, Amitabh Bachchans and Subroto Roy will not bring socialism to Uttar-Pradesh. It is more ironical that on the birthday of Jai Prakash Narayan (11th october), who fought for democracy against the tyranny of Indira Gandhi's authoritarian regime, the Samajwadi workers in Uttar-Pradesh were celebrating the birthday of the new mascot of their party Shri Amitabh Bachchan. There cannot be a bigger irony than this that the current Samajwadi regime in Uttar-Pradesh is a blot on the very word of Samajwadi.
It is not just Mulayam Singh Yadav but all those in power have put their conscious aside and are selling the precious land of the farmers to new thugs, who have media on their side. The middle classes who dream of having their children working in UK and US give a shit to this. Their only concern about India comes through the idiotic mumbai movies. When the farmers die or tribals are killed, that hurt their national pride because in this age of lobbying and India shining.' we only want to listen good news'. People like us who have such news are considered 'persona non grata'. why the hell we always get depressing news.Unfortunately, the political class does not want to bring cheers to all of us. They are surrounded by the self serving bureaucrats, India\'s servile class which looted the people and robbed them from their resources. If Dadari like situation are not tackled properly and if the looters continue to act on their fency, government will not be able to keep this country united. Already there are revolt every where. From Kalinganagar in Orissa to Maharastra, Chhatisgarh to Jharkhand, people are rising in protest against this onslaught which will ultimately rock India.We all have seen the tragedy that happeend to not only Enron but a number of companies which never fulfilled their promises. Ultimately people threw them away. Enron's director became bankrupt and the company was unable to pay its debt. For the people of Maharastra, Enron's promises could never fulfilled. Instead, the electricity crisis worsened in the state.Behind these great malls, dams and buildings are displacement of millions of poor people, Dalits and Adivasis. They will rise and demolish the structure of this nation if it failed to address their concern. We will only have to blame to ourselves and not to the others. Time for the government not to treat the activists who do not confirm to a particular ideology and those who raise their voice against the terror or police or injustice done to people, as criminals. Unfortunately, can we expect it from those in power who give z plus security to criminals and where the policemen behave like goats in front of these criminals masqurading as leaders?

Details of cases against Bhupendra Singh Rawat and other farmer activists


Update-1

October 7, 2006

Anti-Eviction Activists in Jail for the past 10 days;UP Government and Reliance resort to violent repressions and Goonda Raj Senior activists raising the social and economic issues of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) are in Ghaziabad District Jail (UP) jail for the last 10 days. They were fighting against the illegal land grab by Reliance India in the Dadri area after Ghaziabad (30 kms from Delhi) The Dadri Kisan Union Activists Bhupendra Singh Rawat, Jagmohan Rawat, Ompal Singh Bachoda, Sonu Bachoda, Charan Singh, Satpal Singh and two women Vimalesh and Veeru were arrested by unidentified policemen from the Uttar Pradesh Police force on 27th September 2006, while they were travelling to meet the Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and attend a press conference in Delhi. They were to join a delegation comprising of Medha Patkar, Prashant Bhushan, Rajendra Ravi, Arun Kumar, Sanjay Sangvai and Rifat Mumtaz. Mr. Bhupendra Rawat, a farmer leader and an active member of National Alliance of People's Movements, has been part of the struggle fighting against the illegal capture of farmers' land by the Reliance in the nearby villages. The police had resorted to extreme violence against the farmers, including women and children in many instances during the first week of July 2006. Against this a mass action and rally was organised by the movement on 9th July. The police retorted with brutal violence and mass arrests. They also filed many \nfalse and fictitious cases against the leaders of the movement including Mr. Rawat. There are reports that these activists were manhandled badly and did not spare even the women. Women were beaten by men police and they were misbehaved too.These activists have been in jail for the past 10 days . The UP police arrested them on charges including attempt to murder, rioting and violence against police personnel on duty. They have already secured bail under three cases they have been charged under. However, as they get bail on some cases, the police are \nclamping new fabricated charges on these activists to deter their release from the Jail. This has been happening for the past 7 days. A team of activists including Adv. Prashant Bhaushan, Prof. Ajit Jha, Joe Athialy, Shree Prakash and Vijayan MJ along with villagers from Dadri had tried to visit the activists in jail on October 6, but were denied permission to meet any of those in prison on flimsy technical grounds. The police denied permission for even the senior Supreme Court Lawyer in the team.

27th September 2006, while they were travelling to meet the Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and attend a press conference in Delhi. They were to join a delegation comprising of Medha Patkar, Prashant Bhushan, Rajendra Ravi, Arun Kumar, Sanjay Sangvai and Rifat Mumtaz. Mr. Bhupendra Rawat, a farmer leader and an active member of National Alliance of People's Movements, has been part of the struggle fighting against the illegal capture of farmers' land by the Reliance in the nearby villages. The police had resorted to extreme violence against the farmers, including women and children in many instances during the first week of July 2006. Against this a mass action and rally was organised by the movement on 9th July. The police retorted with brutal violence and mass arrests. They also filed many false and fictitious cases against the leaders of the movement including Mr. Rawat. There are reports that these activists were manhandled badly and did not spare even the women . Women were beaten by men police and they were misbehaved too.These activists have been in jail for the past 10 days . The UP police arrested them on charges including attempt to murder, rioting and violence against police personnel on duty. They have already secured bail under three cases they have been charged under. However, as they get bail on some cases, the police are clamping new fabricated charges on these activists to deter their release from the Jail. This has been happening for the past 7 days. A team of activists including Adv. Prashant Bhaushan, Prof. Ajit Jha, Joe Athialy, Shree Prakash and Vijayan MJ along with villagers from Dadri had tried to visit the activists in jail on October 6, but were denied permission to meet any of those in prison on flimsy technical grounds. The police denied permission for even the senior Supreme Court Lawyer in the team.
We are trying to get more details about the case and the charges levelled against them by the police. Once we get that we will send you all an action alert, requesting to write to the Chief Minister, NHRC and so on. Please extend your support to the people who are in jail by mobilising faxes, phone calls etc to the concerned.

Ajit Jha, Vijayan MJ, Joe Athyali, Vimalbhai, Shivani Chaudhry

(011-26680883/26680914 Mobiles: 9868165471/9891814707)\n \n \nUpdate – 2\n9th October 2006.


Update – 2

9th October 2006

Privatisation of India - Kar Lo Duniya Muthie Main

Kar Lo duniya muthie Main, this slogan of late dhiru bhai Ambani seems to have worked as miracle motto on U. P. administration that is going out of the way to imbibe this motto in letter and spirit and leaving no stone unturned in falsely implicating the social activists in various police cases filed on the behest of reliance industries. The ghost ofcapitalism, let loose by reliance in the state of U. P. seems to have completely infected the entire apparatus of government machinery to the extent that it seems to have turned the police staff into robots whose mechanical actions are visible in the form of false cases registered against the social activist Bhupendra Singh Rawat and Jagmohan Singh Rawat of Delhi.

The ordeal of these two social activists began on 27 September 2006 while they were on their way to Delhiin a Maruti van after having spoken to the villagers of village Bejghera khurd. These social activists along with satpal singh sisodia, Charan Singh, Sonu Rana, Ompal Singh and two women who had taken lift in their Maruti van were on their way to Delhiwhile they were intercepted near khera More and taken to police station pilkhuwa. On reaching police station, the two women were let of but at the police station a senior police officer who was not wearing any name plate on uniform asked , Bhupendra Singh Rawat to ensure that henceforth, there should not be any participation on his part in the protest activities of"Bejhera Khurd. In relation to the impending issues for which villagers have been protesting or else case will be registered against him to teachhim a lesson. However, the explanations of Bhupendra Singh Rawat could not yield anything except the following police cases against him and his Co- passengers of Maruti van and his neighbour Jagmohan Singh Rawat who had fated himself to accompany Bhupendra Singh Rawat that day. (1)Police Station Dhaulana,Crime No.108,FIR No.84 dated 15/09/06 U/S 147/323/342/504/506 IPC against 1) Shankar singh 2)Rohtash 3)Yudhister\n 4)Jagdish 5)Bhupendar Rawat 6)Rakesh 7)Rajender 8) Dharampal 9) Jaipal 10)\n Sher Singh 11) Ompal 12) Devendra 13) Rudey Singh 14) Rampahl 15) Dharampal 16) Kamal Singh 17) Puran Sing 18) Ratiram 19) Babu 20)\n Kishanpal and 50-60 unidentified persons.\nIn this case the arrestees of 27 September 2006 have already been granted ", bail by the honourable court. (2) Police Station Dhaulana, crime No 200 FIR No. 76 dated 25/8/06 U/S 147/148/149/332/353/504/506 IPC against yudishter Singh, Rakesh Rana, Shankar Singh Rana and 400-500 unidentified personsIn this case also the arrestees of 27 September 2006 have already been granted bail by the honourable court(3) Police Station Pilkhua, crime No 168, FIR No 114 dated 08/7/06 149/307/332/336/353/504/506 IPC against 1) Anil Bhardwaj 2) Major Himanshu singh 3) Somveer Singh 4) Subash 5) Chander 6) Satyapaul 7) Ram Kishan 8) Dhanna 9) Buddha 10) bhojraj and 100 unidentified persons
In this case the hearing against the arrestees of 27 September 2006 is fixed for 9 October 2006(4) Police Station Pilkhuwa, crime No 167, FIR NO 113 dated 7 July 2006\n under section 1\n47/148/149/307/332/333/353/435/224/225/504/506 IPC and 7 \ncriminal law amendment act against 1) Manoj Bhardwaj 2) Satish 3) Prem 5) Tookey 6) Sunil Giri 7) Monu 8) Begu 9) yudishter 10) Rakesh 11) Sanjay 12) Jaipal and a list of 100 names mentioned on the plain paper and enclosed.In this case also hearing has been fixed for the arrestees of 27 September 2006 for 9 October 2006The arrestees of 27 September 2006 were again produced in the court of \ngaziabad on 6 October 2006 in connection with three fresh cases that have ",1] in Mussoorie with case No 151/06 under section 147/504/506/120B of IPC And case No 168/06 under section 147/148/149/307/506 of IPC and case No 231/06 \nunder section 147/148/149/307/332/353/336 IPC against Bhupendra Singh Rawat.The prejudice of the police is very much evident against the 06 persons\n who are being detained in custody with fresh cases cropping up everyday\n and it is violative of all the democratic norms of a civilised society. It may not be out of place to mention here the case of Deepak Gupta alias\n bittoo son of Rajendra kumar Gupta resident of Hapur who was not even\n remotely connected with this protest of the farmers of village Bejhera \nKhurd.He is into the business of construction material and had come to", Pilkhuwa to collect the pending payments from his clients.During the course of dealing with the clients on the issue of pending payments,he had an altercation with a police official who was supporting the defaulter of pending payment and to settle the score the police official got him\n arrested in connection with the farmers protest cases and hehad to spend 15 days in jail before being bailed out.

Aridaman/Ajeet Jha,

Life and Time of Kanshi Ram

A Tribute to Kanshiramji


By Vidya Bhushan Rawat


BSP's founder President Mr Kanshi Ram died last night out of a heart attack. He was 72. Kanshi Ram's death had been ailing for the past two years and was confined to bed at BSP president Mayawati's house.

If India's politics has grown through a radical change with Dalit becoming the mainstream political force, the one man who made is possible was Kanshi Ram. He worked diligently and religiously to develop a cadre who could bring the party to National mainstream and ultimately to the power in Uttar-Pradesh. In the Indian political scenario, the gap left by Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar was difficult to fill. Ambedkar was a giant, a man of great character and

quintessentially an ideologue. Kanshiram was a great mobiliser, he understood the issue of self respect and participation of the communities. Those close to him always remember how he worked hard to build up BAMSEF and DS-4. He would cycle down to streets and town, sleep on the floor and converse with the activists. Kanshi Ram understood very well how communities under represented in our Parliamentry system crave for representtion. If in Uttar-Pradesh, communities like Pals ( Shephards), Nishads ( fishermen), Rajbhars have developed highly political thoughts, it is because of the BSP and its strength. Ofcourse, for the Jatavs and Chamars in Uttar-Pradesh, BSP became a 'mission ka kaam'. No other community or political party in India till date can claim such loyal supporters such as BSP, where the workers would go at their own and bring other people to the polling booths. Dalits in Uttar-Pradesh along with most backward communities are today thoroughly politicised, a matter of envy for the South Indian part where the NGOs are working in large number yet they do not enjoy that political power, social dignity as in Uttar-Pradesh.

Therefore, Kanshiram in true sense was a revolutionary who changed the political equations and gave new dimensions to Dalit politics in India in general and UP in particular. Whatever may be his draw backs, Kanshiram revived the strong Ambedkarite sense of dignity, self respect in the masses who had once upon a time became vote bank of the upper caste leadership of different political parties. Kanshiram changed the perception. " Jiski jitni Sankhya Bhari, uski utni bhagidari' and with the concept of Bahujan Samaj, Kanshiram went beyond Ambedkar in political stretagy. He was not confined to Dalits but spread to most backward communities as well as Muslims in India. For the first time, we saw a rainbow coalition of the Bahujan Samaj emerging in the north that shook the power structure. His was a sharp mind. In the initial phase he knew it well that people would always question him as what was the mass base of the party. Yet, BSP would contest all the seats. He remarked once : We may not win all the seats but we are in a position to change the equations and responsible for some one else's defeat'. That stretagy resulted in Congress Party grounded in different elections in Uttar-Pradesh. No talk of developmental drama would take away people from Kanshiram. The parties like BJP would talk of ultra nationalism and Hindutva while Congress talked about secularism but were ultimately decimated in Uttar-Pradesh. Dalit-bahujans of Uttar-Pradesh remained loyal to him. In Kanshiram's UP, Dalit representation became the main issue. It was the struggle between the Manuwadi parties and Dalit representative parties. Ultimately people chose BSP. Today, BSP is growing stronger and stronger in the state and all set to stage a come back. Kanshraim would have been happy to see return of his party. Alas he is no more. Kanshiram's death is a big blow to the Dalit movement. He was icon whom the Dalits of the country looked for guidance. He was down to earth and lived for the society. He kept his words. He life was an example for many other political leaders who amassed huge wealth and are involved in family business and red tapism. Family for Kanshiram was the Dalit samaj. Though in his last days, the issue of his health and confinement was challenge by his family yet one should know that Kanshiram virtually was a man for his society. He rarely talked about his family. Such example are very rare in Indian politics.

Whatever may be his draw backs, Kanshiram revived the strong Ambedkarite sense of dignity, self respect in the masses who had once upon a time became vote bank of the upper caste leadership of different political parties. Kanshiram changed the perception. " Jiski jitni Sankhya Bhari, uski utni bhagidari' and with the concept of Bahujan Samaj, Kanshiram went beyond Ambedkar in political stretagy. He was not confined to Dalits but spread to most backward communities as well as Muslims in India. For the first time, we saw a rainbow coalition of the Bahujan Samaj emerging in the north that shook the power structure.

His was a sharp mind. In the initial phase he knew it well that people would always question him as what was the mass base of the party. Yet, BSP would contest all the seats. He remarked once : We may not win all the seats but we are in a position to change the equations and responsible for some one else's defeat'. That stretagy resulted in Congress Party grounded in different elections in Uttar-Pradesh. No talk of developmental drama would take away people from Kanshiram. The parties like BJP would talk of ultra nationalism and Hindutva while Congress talked about secularism but were ultimately decimated in Uttar-Pradesh. Dalit-bahujans of Uttar-Pradesh remained loyal to him. In Kanshiram's UP, Dalit representation became the main issue. It was the struggle between the Manuwadi parties and Dalit representative parties. Ultimately people chose BSP. Today, BSP is growing stronger and stronger in the state and all set to stage a come back. Kanshraim would have been happy to see return of his party. Alas he is no more.

Kanshiram's death is a big blow to the Dalit movement. He was icon whom the Dalits of the country looked for guidance. He was down to earth and lived for the society. He kept his words. He life was an example for many other political leaders who amassed huge wealth and are involved in family business and red tapism. Family for Kanshiram was the Dalit samaj. Though in his last days, the issue of his health and confinement was challenge by his family yet one should know that Kanshiram virtually was a man for his society. He rarely talked about his family. Such example are very rare in Indian politics.

Life of Kanshiramji will always remind the people of India and particularly the Dalits to struggle for their democratic rights by bringing together all the marginalised forces of the country and have their government at the centre. Kanshi ram dreamt of a Dalit prime minister leading the country. One hope that his dream would come true one day. Yes we all need such thinkers and stretagist, honest man who considered the society as their 'parivar' . That Bahujan Samaj has to claim the rightful place in the polity and society of the country and lead it to next century. It is not utopian to say that the next century would be the century of Dalits, the followers of Ambedkar. This dream will definitely be realised and one person who could rightully claim to have changed the entire system and brought us close to realising Baba Saheb dream would always be Kanshiram. For the Dalits all over the country, it is time to rededicate themselves to the cause of Dalit Bahujan Alliance which was perceived by Kanshiram. This Dalit Bahujan Alliance should be led by the Dalits, the follower of Baba Saheb. Ofcourse, there are many contradictions with some of the lathi weilding backward communities who hit the Dalits yet Dalits are in a position to lead the movement and provide a philosophical, cultural leadership to all. India's battle is not just a political battle. It is a fight against the brahmanical socio-cultural values and the Dalits vision is an answer to that. A vision which challenge the sancitity of religion, dogmas, text books and even Gods. No religion has the power to challenge Gods and the books allegedly written by the Gods. It is only the Dalit vision which can rightfully claim to challenge the authority of Gods and Godsons. One hope that in this holy months, which is already being celebrated all over the country as a mark of Dr Ambedkar's conversion, all the followers of Baba Saheb will rededicate themselves to socio cultural empowerment of Dalits in the country. Kanshiramji may not be here physically but his life would always remain a source of inspiration for millions of people who saw him build an organisation and a movement that ultimately changed destiniy of 170 million Dalits in India.

October 9th, 2006

Rservation in premier institutions

By Prabhudev Konana

While reservation is a political hot button, it is about societal endurance, ethics, and value issues. If it is a pure political solution then, unfortunately, premier institutions will probably lose the battle.

THERE IS an intense emotional debate over reservation in premier institutions of higher education. Those against reservation fear quality degradation and brand dilution. Others object that these government-supported institutions are inherently designed for the fortunate ones. Is the government's action purely political and populist? Do the institutions of higher learning have an obligation to address social inequities? And can we learn from institutions of higher learning in the U.S. that have addressed similar issues?

The key word in this debate is "government." Successful government-funded institutions often attract scrutiny. It is an oxymoron to scrutinise success. But this is not surprising when beneficiaries appear to be predominantly from a privileged caste, majority religion/race, or powerful social/economic strata or region. Any social inequities and injustices become politicised. Consider the attention institutions such as IITs and IIMs have attracted in recent times — successful entrepreneurs and jaw-dropping salaries — and frequent bragging of intellect; yet little is discussed showing broader societal access, benefits, and representation. Ironically, success perceived by some stakeholders amplifies the negative aspects (for example, social inequities) for other stakeholders. The government is a major stakeholder of these institutions and its concerns cannot be ignored. This is no different from the strategic choices the private sector faces, given the conflicting stakeholder values in an uncertain business environment (for example, the recent Pepsi and Coca-Cola run-ins with various entities).

The problems run deeper than a simple political debate. First, the reality is lack of a level playing field. The very highly selective system is inherently biased towards those with access to better schools and resources, or with superior mental capabilities. I suppose there are no issues with the latter, but the former raises questions. Families spend more than the per capita GDP of India to prepare their children for entrance examinations . Those who get selected appear to be predominantly from urban and well-educated families. A majority of students from socially and economically backward environments have little chance to compete. The exceptions are few and far between.

Second, there is a significant lack of information that draws inequities to the forefront. Currently, premier institutions reserve 22.5 per cent of the seats for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. How have these students fared academically and in the corporate world relative to other students? What impact have these students had on the larger society? It is not important to know if students admitted under quota can compete effectively over time. Maybe, every government-funded educational institution should consider declaring the aggregate profiles of its entering and graduating students (like caste, religion, region, and social and economic background). It is a common practice for private and public U.S. universities to <243>provide such information (for example, see<243> Harvard University details at<243> http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/prospective/applying/stats/index.html). <243>Many questions can be asked based on the published data. What are the reasons for over-representation or under-representation of any segment of the population? Have these premier institutions made any attempt to encourage under-represented groups to become competitive? In the absence of such information, institutions are opening the door for scrutiny and political interference and will lose opportunities to monitor and strive for improvement. Without such data, it makes little sense to argue about quality or brand dilution.

This conflict and debate of social equity and representation in higher education are not unique to the Indian context. The U.S. universities provide great cases to analyse, but with a major difference. In the U.S., it is minority under-representation, while in India it is probably majority under-representation. The 1964 Civil Rights Act enacted after the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King explicitly allowed the use of race in the admission and hiring process in universities (referred to as affirmative action). Affirmative action has been a driving force to create diversity and opportunities for minorities. But affirmative action has faced numerous hurdles in many great institutions, including the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University of California, Berkeley. Several lawsuits alleging strict use of number quota or reverse discrimination have been fought in the State and federal courts, reaching even the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled in a case involving the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with a 5-4 majority verdict that race can be one of the factors in admission decision because it furthers "a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body." Further, the court opined that race itself cannot be the dominating factor since it is unconstitutional. These are indeed interesting observations that Indian policy-makers and institutions should note.

To avoid constitutional challenges related to preference based on gender and race, many States have enacted fascinating policies. Texas has mandated guaranteed admission to any state-supported university to students who graduate in the top 10 per cent of their high school class. The top 10 per cent rule circumvents affirmative action while recognising the fact that many schools in poor neighbourhoods, border towns, and farming communities have minorities in large numbers. Hence, the top 10 per cent rule provides an excellent opportunity for the minority and economically disadvantaged to join prestigious universities. Many States have enacted similar laws. California has the top four per cent rule and the State ofFlorida the top 20 per cent rule. There are other actions as well. In Texas, higher education institutions have earmarked funds for first generation college students. Further, there is an explicit awareness among universities that understanding different cultures and backgrounds is not just a social equity issue, but also an important core value of education to all members of society.

Most private and public universities in the U.S. have special head-start programmes for promising minority high school students. They visit laboratories, meet star faculty, and attend classes to get a glimpse of the opportunities. The McCombs Business School (MSB), where I teach, has numerous initiatives to increase awareness and to promote diversity. We are part of many consortia to identify talented minority students and to attract them to our programmes Since minority representation is low among MBA students, MSB has partnered with eight major global businesses (for example, Deloitte Consulting, FedEx, AT&T) to provide 3 years of work experience to bright minority undergraduate students with deferred admission to the MBA programme. These efforts are being replicated in other private and public universities.
We need to recognise that diversity provides "core educational value" for students. A great example of diversity needs is in management education. If management programmes are about creating future leaders, why not admit a tiny fraction of students who come from rural India and have demonstrated unmatched leadership, but cannot get through the entrance examination ? They may provide better insights into challenges in rural India that are helpful in designing and marketing products, or will inspire others on social responsibility. But in our emotional debate, we ignore this core value.

The reservation debate is now extending to the private sector. While government interference in the private sector is troubling, it doesn't absolve this sector of the responsibility to promote diversity and social equity. In fact, firms can use these as strength. Some of the best firms to work for in the U.S. are also known for diversity (for example, Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard). Numerous U.S. companies have officers for diversity-related issues (My university has a vice-president for diversity). Recently, reputed advertising agencies signed an agreement to increase minority representation with the New York City after realising that hiring of minorities barely increased in the last 40 years. This agreement requires these private firms to submit hiring and promotion details to the city! Should the private sector wait for such public embarrassment and government interference, or take proactive action? Collectively it can support, identify, and nurture bright under-represented students to succeed in the corporate world rather than subject themselves to government or political interference.

In India, the sheer magnitude of the problem to reach out to the masses is daunting. But that does not preclude reaching out to any. Each institute will not have the resources to tackle this nation-wide problem. But joining with other educational institutions like NITs, industry associations like NASSCOM and CII, NGOs, and businesses, they can form entities (like associations in the U.S. to encourage minority enrolment) to identify and train promising students from economically and socially backward communities to succeed. Since the government cannot do everything, it is left to the institutions and all their stakeholders (including alumni, students and faculty) to bring about some, or even incremental, positive change. Without these actions, it is hypocritical to expect government funding but show no social responsibility.

The system of affirmative action or reservation is not perfect, but the spirit must be acknowledged. While reservation is a political hot button, it is about societal endurance, ethics, and value issues. If it is a pure political solution then, unfortunately, premier institutions will probably lose the battle. Of course, there are significant problems with explicit quota. The real beneficiaries of reservation may be the economically well-off "backward community" members who generation after generation reap the benefits at the expense of the real needy. The government needs to put a stop to such abuses.

One can endlessly debate reservation, but it is a good debate! It raises awareness of the social inequities, and hopefully will inspire individuals to rise to the occasion for a better India. Hopefully, self-governance will minimise government interference. "Strength in diversity" need not be political or feel-good rhetoric; institutions and their stakeholders must bring this to fruition with passion, new ideas, and a positive mindset.

(The author is a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and can be contacted at pkonana@mail.utexas.edu.)

From : The Hindu, online edition, September 30th,2006

Church, Secularism and the Issue of Dalits

Dr John Dayal in conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat



John Dayal has been a Journalist 37 years, writes books and makes the occasional documentary film. He has been actively involved in the civil liberty movement, fought against police atrocities, imposition of the State of Emergency [1975-77], communalism and issues relating to Dalits, Christians and other minorities. A visiting Professor of journalism at various institutions, Dayal has been Chairman of YMCA Media center, Chairman of the governing Boards of various colleges of Delhi University, and was Chairman of the critic jury of International Children Festival of India. He deposed before the US Congressional Committee and European Commission on religious freedom, National Human Rights Commission. Currently, National President of 0 year old All India Catholic Union and Secretary general of the All India Christian Council, John Dayal was co founder with the late Archbishop Alan De Lastic of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights, Mr. Dayal was there in Durban to raise the issue of Dalits and related intolerance of Hindu right wingers on the marginalised sections of society including minorities in general and Christian in particular. In a conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat, he spoke at length the problems faced by the Christian Church in India and challenges ahead.



VB: Let us start with the latest [September 2006] incident at Loreto Convent School in Lucknow, which is a Catholic school. What is the difference between a Christian School and a Sangh Parivar-run school if miracles are being forced on children? Do you think the school was right in inviting a person from Bengal and project his miracles in front of the children?

JD: This is an issue which is quite alive in the Church because many different facets of dogma, doctrine and civil rights are involved; theology is being questioned, and the jurisdiction of the appellate authority in this matter is being clearly identified. I think this is a matter more for the Catholic Bishop of Lucknow than for the civic administration of that city. Under Catholic Canon Law, he is the supreme religious authority in his Diocese and all religious groups such as the Loreto run their schools, colleges and hospitals with his permission. It is his job to ensure that the Dogmas and Doctrine of the Catholic Church and its social teachings are not perverted or interpreted in a manner that is insidious and violative of the codes and traditions of the Church. Of course, on the sidelines of the mayhem is also the larger question of Catholic education, and the difference between Faith and blind faith or superstition, the difference between what Christians call the Healing Ministry and the magical mumbo jumbo of ojhas and charlatans, the difference between Evangelistic, Pentecost or Charismatic forms of worship on the one hand and the sort of spirits, apparitions, Ouija Boards and ghostly mantras that should be more at home in some tantric’s laboratory than in a Church compound.

Let me begin by saying that the issue of Catholic Education is being reviewed by the Church in all its dimensions -- its social implications, its target groups, the pedagogy, fees structures, obligation towards Dalits and OBCs and the commitment to the Poor. This will perhaps take another year before it is codified and implemented in the more than 150 Dioceses of the Catholic Church which perhaps run over 22,000 academic institutions in the country, from Barmer to Nagaland and from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, through forests, deserts, hills and marshlands where others do not want to go.

What happened in Lucknow was neither religious teaching, even if were to be taken at its worst, nor miracles being forced down the throats of children. A Sangh Parivar school is not recognized as a Minority institution under Article 25 and Article 30. Hinduism is NOT the default religion of the Republic of India for it to be taught in the absence of Christianity, Islam or Sikhism. Sangh Schools have no right at all to teach a specific religion unless they are to teach every religion. It is of course another matter that not only Sangh Parivar schools, but most government run primacy and secondary schools in most villages of Northern India, and even colleges for that matter, are run as if they were orthodox Hindu seminaries in the matter of religious cultural content in the academic environment.

This is not the case with Article 30 Minority institutions such as Loreto convent which have the Constitutional right to be part of their religious community’s obligation to practice, profess and propagate their faith. But in a self imposed code, all Christian schools, Catholic or Protestant, have made it a point that religious teaching will be given only to Christian children, and others will have the option to study moral science or some such subject in the same time. This is something that is now sacrosanct in Christian schools of all denominations even though this may not be the case in madrasas and Sanskrit or Anglo Vedic schools and colleges.

What happened in the Loreto convent was not a religious teaching. It was an assembly session for a section of the girls and what was on `show’ of I may call it that, was a special form of prayer practice. Time was given to some rickshaw driver turned prayer man to show his style. It turned out to be some hotch potch of Charismatic, tantra, siddhi and pure magic.

I make a difference in this and what happened next. Fainting by tiredness is not uncommon among school children, and even among police personnel, who have to wait long hours for some VVIP politician to come and unfurl the Flag on Independence Day, or during the visit to town of a Prime minister. Hysteria is also not common among girl schools.

But the preacher’s claims that he was possessed by the spirit of Jesus Christ, is bunkum. It is part of our faith that Healing is done in the name of Jesus. We believe he was born of a human mother, died and was buried, that he rose again and after some days, was raised to the heaven. Please remember that Jesus appeared many times to his disciples after this death and resurrection – always as he was when he was alive, complete with wounds that we call Stigmata. He did not the, and does not now, take possession of human bodies. That may be the work of the devil or some spirits, but not of God. The prayers that heal in the name of Christ and the Holy Spirit do not involve possessions, Omens and such like.

Because this is against our doctrines and articles of faith, therefore it is a matter for probe by the Bishop as to why such a thing happened in one of our Catholic schools.

The nuns meant no harm and for that matter, even this ojha really meant no harm. He was just showing off.

VB: Now, an issue of superstition has been totally communalized by the goons of Sangh Parivar as they came in large number, targeted the school staff and broke windows and furniture of the school. What is your response? The Parivar says that they would continue to protest against the alleged proselytisation of the children.

JD: Who can argue with Fascists? No one. They communalise and turn violent. For his own political reasons, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, for days does nothing to get the criminals arrested. Mr Yadav is no friend of the Church, and even less so of English-medium Convents and boys schools run by the church. If he wanted to , he could have shown to the Sangh thugs that the rule of law still ran in the State of Uttar Pradesh.

Mr Yadav’s silence did much to generate the hype against the Christians. The Hindi language television, and newspapers such as the Times of India and particularly its Lucknow edition, did much to add oil to the fan. This is quite the norm now, unfortunately, with the media conniving at such violence—which by the way turns public attention away from crucial issues such as why the guilty of various anti Muslim riots still run free in the country..

I hope sometimes in the future, the governments at the centre and in the states will find the moral courage to stand up to the Sangh Parivar in similar and other matters.

VB: What suggestions would you make to missionary schools in India when they deal such sensitive issues so that the Hindutva goons do not get benefit of their apolitical activities?

JD: In popular parlance, the term missionary school has come to mean schools run by the Church or by private Christian citizens. If they were really missionary schools [which perhaps they were when they bean a century or more ago], they should leave the urban elite and the rich of the metropolitan areas, and go open their schools in rural and tribal areas, or in the slums of the Dalits sand the villages of the landless.

But if they decide to also serve the urban middle class and rich, such schools have to make up their mind if they want t remain teaching shops selling elite labels with fluency in English as their USP, or their unique Selling Proposition. The rich buy their education, taunt the Nuns and fathers [other than at Admission time, when the same rich man can be seen groveling at the Principal’s door], and then stand watching in silence as some other Sangh thugs go about smashing school furniture, beating Priests and once in a frequent while, aping the odd Nun or two.


VB: Christians by and large remain highly apolitical community except for the north eastern region where the real politics is played by the tribal leaders. Has this indifference to politics damaged socio-political condition further? Is there any plan to get the community involved in some political understanding?

JD: This is of concern to the community and the Church leadership, at last. We in the All India Catholic Union, patently Catholic lay group, the ecumenical non-denominational all India Christian Council and similar Civil society organisations are deeply worried at the implications of a people who remain illiterate in the realities of life, or who think politics, political realities and activism is not for people who profess the Christina faith.

Christians cannot remain aloof from the world. To that extent, Christianity is a deeply political faith as it seeks change, it professes love for the poor and the marginalised, not for the rich. It worships no gods of wealth and war, nor does it have in it place for might and grandeur.

Christ himself was a catalyst of change – social, ethical, spiritual and of course political. Christianity has been at the root of civilisational growth.

The Indian Christian community is only now waking up to its role as the political conscience keeper of its age and of its nation. The gathering support to the Dalit movement is a visible example of this.

VB: While Christian community and its leadership have now initiated dialogue with the Dalits, it is still the biggest challenge for the common man to link them with the Dalits. The upper caste priests are not really favorable to the idea of Dalits sitting with them. How will this influence of Varna system be eradicated from the minds of the Christian religious people.

JD: This is quite true. The scourge of caste, as Mahatma Phule, Bhimrao Ambedkar and Nehru noted, exists in the DNA of Indian society. It crosses the mebranes of the Hindu relgion to permesate all other resident faiths, Islam, Chritianity, Sikhism and Jainism incouded. You may ban the practice of untouchability by enacting some legidlation, but the anhilation of caste, as Ambedkar wanted, seems an impossible dream. Those in power, and the power brokers realise that they would have lost their base and their existence if they were to outlaw caste. We have to deal with this.

VB: You have been raising the issue of Dalit Christians. There has been resentment among the Dalits for they fear that if the Christian Dalits a quota, they would lose their own quota. Secondly, the current government has not taken any specific step to do the same. You have met the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi? What promises have they made to you and have any of them been activated so far?

JD: Dalits professing the Hindu faith despite their situation in society, need have no fear from Dalit Christians getting the same Scheduled cast status with its accompanying protection of law, more important to us than the mere access to a few government jobs. As it is, barring those in the scavenging departments of municipal corporations., most other jobs still remain far from the reach of Dalits. Christian Dalits are perhaps only hairs-breadth better off than their brothers in the Hindu faith in terms of education..

VB: Some of the Christian groups are still flirting with Hindutva. They are not isolated one. The common linking theme seems to be anti-Islamic tendencies. What do you think on this and what are you doing to make a better understanding of Islam among the Christian community.


JD: This is among the minor successes of the Sangh propaganda for sixty years. Many victims of Hindutva still look at Islam through RSS goggles. The same unfortunately is true for Muslims who can target Christians little understanding that it is the Sangh or some other vested interest which is twisting news and facts to provoke communities against each other.

VB: What steps have the Catholic institutions have taken to bring Dalits to mainstream? I mean institutions like St Stephens have open opposed the idea of affirmative action in their recruitment. YMCAs and other such institutions are churning out more Arun Shouries and Chandan Mitras. How do you face this paradox of Christian Institutions? What should be done so that at least Dalit Christians get their due in their own institutions?

JD: There is a conscious effort now that we cannot just pay lip service to the Dalit cause without putting our money where our mouth is. Elite institutions are becoming more sensitive to this. But mathematical parity, I agree, is still far away. Unfortunately this is so also in government run education centres of higher and professional learning, including medicine, law, military colleges etc.

VB:: How does the AICC see the global war on terror? What step would you take so that the image built of the Muslims by the Indians and International channels do not get deep into the mind of your community? Don’t you think that such stereotyped image of the Muslim community is fed in the mind of the new young which would ultimately be dangerous for the youngsters of the community and may bring them to the Hindutva’s propagandists in the ‘secular media?

The Church in India has defended and supported the Palestinians while also recognising the Jews’ right to a homeland, and now that Israel is a nation, it right to secure borders.

The matter is geo political, not religious. The Indian church is among the first to speak against the nuclear bomb, the bombings of innocent Iraqi children by the US and the Israel war on civilians in the guise of seeking out terrorists.

We do make distinction that in India there is no clash of civilizations. Islam and Christianity are both minority religions, both equal victim of the Sangh ideology.

The Indian Church needs to, and indeed does make, common cause with secular Hindus and marginalised communities.


VB: Some years ago a delegation of Christian clergy initiated a dialogue with the RSS chief Mr. K.S.Sudarshan. What will be the implications of these dialogues? Will it not give the Hindutva right-wingers a certificate that they represent the entire Hindu society including various non-Brahmins upper caste groups and backward communities?

JD: Without casting an aspersion on the Church leadership, by accepting a dialogue under the coercion of National Minorities Commission, the Church has made itself vulnerable on many counts, chief among them is the charge that they have entered into a bilateral barter with the RSS with its vested interests in Institutional and properties at the top of mind and not with the interest of the communities and people. So far both the Catholic as well as the Protestant leadership have not been able to come up with any better explanation except that a dialogue is good by itself and that it was good to remove misgivings that RSS might have about the Christians. For whatever details are available from the press reports it is quiet obvious that on its part RSS has continued its barrage against Christians on the issues of conversion. Under pressure of RSS, the Church groups, have also turned against what they call, fringe groups or evangelists groups who they pinned the blame for aggressive evangelization, harsh language or antagonizing Hindus. Under the same pressure of the senior Church leaders have thought it fit to ‘disown’ popular lay activists saying that only Bishops are authorised to speak for the Church. This of course open up an entirely new debate on role and empowerment of leity and role of Bishops in secular and political issues. To come back to main issue, the dangers that emanates from such dialogues are the following:

1. Betrayal of the secular Hindus: The vast Hindu community has never accepted the RSS to be either its representative or spokesperson. In fact, contemporary political history prove that majority of Hindus reject the Sangh theology and its political doctrine that is why the BJP even at its peak was not able to gain more than 180 seats.
And it has to depend on regional chauvinistic parties to cobble a coalition to come into power. By talking to the Sangh Parivar before we have explored the dialogue with religious counterpart in Hindu society, we may have contributed to the marginalisation of secular religious voices in the society.
2. The Church inability to separate Hindutva from Hinduism: This is a direct result of Church’s failure to have dialogue with non-Brahmins Hindus. The same is the issue of inculturation, we happily adopt the culture of Brahmins but are reluctant to assimilate the worship forms of OBCs and Dalits. Perhaps it comes naturally for a Brahmanical hierarchy to see an ally with another brahmanical political ruling group. Naturally, the Church leadership fails to understand that Hindutva like Nazism, Zionism or even Talibanism, is an ideology and not a religion but has to be challenged by the ideological strength of progressive secular civil society. In fact the Church leadership is confronting ideologically with the socially presentable language of Christian Priests who is reluctant to challenge the Sangh Parivar on its role towards women, OBCs, Dalits, Muslims, Sikhs and neo Buddhists.

VB: Why have the Christians always been defensive on the issue of conversion and foreign funding? Don’t you feel that rather than having a dialogue with RSS, the Church should have engaged in a dialogue with dalits, OBCs and other secular people?

JD: The Church is not defensive. I would have liked the Church to challenge the right of Sangh to ask this question at all. In this day and age and with the police controlled by the upper caste police, it would be impossible to use either coercion or inducing other than the Sangh Parivar. It is also important to remember that conversion as after are attraction towards a better spiritual and physical expression as it is a desire to escape from a state of oppression which has lasted for 3000 years. Institutaionalised and organised Church have also evolved highly structured religious processes, which inhibit their activities in the area. The Catholic Church is still active in tribal and dalit areas but not among the OBCs. Many of the so-called mainline Church are crippled with corruption, lack of vocation and dynamic leadership. Further, there is no evangelistic activity in their calendar apart from their Church service every Sunday.

I think the Church should assert its supremacy and talk about the constitutional provisions for religious freedom. It must also have a dialogue with all Church groups including the evangelist on evolving a new language for evangelisation which is utterly sensitive, politically correct and clearly carries the liberty message of Jesus Christ. Any compromise on right to evangelise is a violation of an individual to covert him/ her.

VB: What are the main things for the Christian community to ponder over in the last fifty years of our Independence? The backward communities who are now the political stronger group says that Christians were in the forefront to oppose reservation meant for them in 1990. How can there be a dialogue with Dalits and backwards.

JD: According to 10th five years plan, Christian community is the poorest of the poor in India. Apart from a few well off people in the coastal belt of Bombay, Goa and Kerala, the rest are extremely poor. We don’t have an artisan class which can earn its own living. We don’t have an entrepreneur class to exports commercial opportunities. Because there has been no work among OBCs barring part of Kerala, Karnataka there are no Christian with any land holding. Other than the tribal, while the urban Christian is basically a salaries employee in government or private sector, in the rural areas they are landless peasantry or agricultural labor. This by the way gives the final lie to the propaganda that Christians have been converted out of inducement. Prime task for all the Christian social scientists is to uplift the marginalised and OBCs. Despite the Church running various educational institutions, it is not true that Church rejected Mandal but elitist sections of the Church never understood the social engineering aspect of Mandal. Secondly main Mandal engineering has its most potent impact in the non-tribal Bihar and indogangetic parts where Christianity is lowest both in evangelical fervor and numerical strength. In the south barring the classical hostility with Marxist in Kerala over the issue of private colleges, Christian Activists have been a part of the aspiration of socially and politically mobile groups in Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Kerala.

VB: Several Christian groups said that caste system exists in every religion and every region and hence it needs to be addressed globally. By saying so they have given a big support to Hindutva. If it exists in every religion then why condemns BJP or for that matter the Hindutva. What was the reason that the Dalit activists themselves rarely raised the religious basis of their discrimination during the Durban conference against Racism?

JD: I disagree with the formulation of the question that casteism or Manuwad, a brahmanical hierarchy of the sort that we are talking about is endemic to religion. In India while all other religions have their own class structure or even function based discrimination because of ruling and priestly classes. On the other hand, Dalit scholars have conclusively proved that Manuwad is intrinsic to classical Hinduism would have to undergo various internal restructuring if the concept of caste were to be knocked at. It is because of this that Gandhi also attacked the concept of untouchability as evil but supported the concept of Caste System as Dr Bhagwan Das has proved from his meticulous writings of Gandhi. Caste and its social fall out or social infirmity has erased out the barriers of religion, region and even race. I have myself questioned the reluctance of some Dalit camps in attacking Manuwad frontly. Perhaps there is some anxiety that by attacking Hindutva & Manuwad, we may alienate middle class friends and society in India particularly OBCs. My own position in Durban was a frontal attack on Hindutva as ideological framework against Dalits and other communities. I personally feel it does not dilute the focus on Dalits as victim of Hindutva, which believes in hierarchical system with Dalits at the bottom of their social order.

VB: What is the role of Church towards the marginalised communities? Will they give them a fair representation in their institutions or Churches?

JD: The struggle of Dalit rights within Church became an integral part of over all Dalit struggles. Social institution of caste has crossed the religious membrane, so you see the caste-based Churches in South India. Despite all the tall claims, it is just 10% of total clergy belong to Dalit community and out of total 180 Catholic Bishops there are only 5 Dalit Catholic Bishops. It is an untenable situation and distracts for more visible solidarity for Dalit cause. Many of our schools in metropolitan cities have become elitists and barring a few exception like St Josephine evening College in Banglore, most of our schools cater more to social and political upper caste elite than to Dalits. This situation is crying out for an early corrective solution.

VB: Christian missionaries in the entire South Asia are facing victimization. In Pakistan they face the notorious blasphemy law; in Sri Lanka and Nepal they faced violence. How far the Indian Churches and Christian community reacted to all this?

JD: Both the Catholic Church and Catholic laity movement have been in the forefront of highlighting the tragedy of Christian in Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and even Srilanka where they are victims of violence on both sides. We have protested vehemently and carried out the international campaign to save the victims of draconian Blasphemy law of Pakistan. We also campaigned for the release of missionaries in Nepal. But as a small missionary in India, our own strength is limited and therefore we have been working for secular society. We are very active in general human rights groups and form a vocal part of emerging Christian community of India and South Asia.