P.K.Mahanandia : A Living Legend

A Dalit as India’s cultural Ambassador in Europe

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat



We all celebrated when Bobby Jindal made it to American Congress several years back. Similarly whether it is Mahendra Chaudhury in Fiji or Vasudev Pandey in the Carribeans, Indians always rejoice on the victory of their ‘own’ people. But, it is strange that an Indian who is known as the ‘cultural ambassador’ of India for his noble efforts to propagate Indian arts and culture in Sweden, remain unknown to a large tribe in India. It is certainly because he happened to be a Dalit and has no public relation firms to publicise his work and achievements. Nevertheless, PK Mahanandia’s life and achievements can give us many lessons of how we treat our geniuses and that if opportunities are provided any body can shine under the sun. Moreover, in a country where caste hatred dominate our discourse, Mahanandia got an opportunity to develop his life and show his skills to the world only after he left India. He got married to Swede Nobility after a pure love story, which virtually had no parallel? Much before, he could achieve so many distinctions even as representing Sweden at various UN conferences, Mahanandia was humiliated in his home state of Orissa and later in the streets of Delhi just because he happened to be born in an untouchable family he had no God father who could guide him and provide support to pursue his dream to become an artist? It is important that we should understand what this story tells us. So first let me introduce him to you. Yes, Mr P.K.Mahanandia, would have made it to Swedish Parliament this year had his party Junilistan received some more votes at the national level. Mr. P.K.Mahandia became legend in his own lifetime for his amazing work, his love story and his contribution to strengthen the multicultural life in Sweden.

PK as he is fondly called was originally Pradyumna to his parents. Born in an untouchable weaver family, in 1949 in a village of district Kandhapada, Orissa, this outcaste always had a fascination for the nature. He had seen the dangers of the Varna system and how it reduces people to nothing. An individual become useless because of his caste identity. His father was a postman who later rose to become postmaster. The father wanted to educate his children and hence PK was sent to local schools yet his caste identity always came in between to haunt him. His fellow student would laugh at him and mock his family and caste. Knowing this, his father arranged him a hostel at Mahendra High School but here also the cook behaved in the similar fashion what I would recall what Dr Ambedkar witnessed when he returned to India from Abroad. It agonized the young mind of Pradyumna. I am sure all those who are reading this would understand that caste is not class in India. It is worst than any other disease,

Pradyumna was a born artist who had grown in the lap of nature. From the college days, his art started reflecting in his various works. But very unfortunately Pradyumna was unable to concentrate on his education. While he remained weak in mathematics even though, he was a keen student of science at the school level.

He later joined Viswabharati to study art on the advice of his elder brother. Despite his selection at the art school, it became impossible to pay the high fee and he had to return home disappointingly. It was more disappointing that this legendary artist could not find a Bhadrlok gentlemen taking care of him and exploring his art. One wonders what were the virtues of Vishwabharati if it could not nurture a talent in India. But perhaps that is not in our traditions particularly when we all suffer from Dronacharya syndrome. Hence, after his failure to get admission in Vishwabharati, he joined college of art, Khallikote, which was affiliated to government of Orissa. But that did not satisfy his quest to develop art and he finally took admission at Delhi College of Art to study Fine Arts 1971.

In Delhi he had to face similar problems. The struggle continued where he slept on the streets and used the public toilets. He still remembers those horrible days when he used to roam around particularly near the old coffee house, which is now Palika Bazar More painful was that there was no body to help him provide him the basic necessities of life. He would walk barefoot and was virtually homeless till a friend Tariq Beg shared his accommodation with him. Talent never remain hidden and with in few years, Pradyumna became an expert in making portraits, as his biographer noted Oriya poet of international repute Mr Jayant Mohapatra writes ‘, The excellence of the portrait of the cosmonaut Valentina Tereskova was the first in his efforts at portraiture, and remains a memorable creation for all time. His art became topic of discussion everywhere, and his name found prominent place in the country’s newspaper. Pradyumna could then easily obtain permission from the Delhi High Commission and he began to take his art to the streets, sketching and painting near the Fountain in New Delhi’s Connaught Place.’

In 1975 Charlotte, a Swedish student Charlotte came to know about the creation of portraits by Pradyumna, in a leading English Newspaper the Hindustan Times. Perhaps, that changed the entire life of Pradyumna. Charlotte decided to visit his exhibition and went to Connnaught place where Pradyumna was making portraits of those who desired so. Watching him make portrait of people made immediate influence in the mind of Charlotte. During the making of portrait for Charlotte both of them fell for each other. They married according to local traditions and Charlotte was later rediscovered as Charulata and in short Lotta.

While Charlotte had to return to Sweden because of her visa, Pradyumna decided that he would go on his own to that country. May be, the traditional ‘purushartha’ or ‘manliness’, prohibited him to take a favor from his wife who could have easily send him an air ticket. It was nearly impossible to earn that much of money by designing portraits in the streets of Connaught place in the mid seventies. So one fine day, Pradyumna realized that he probably might not earn the amount of money required to buy an air ticket to Stockholm and therefore he decided to go to Sweden on Cycle, which was his support system to commute in Delhi. It was 1977 and Pradyumna started from Delhi and passed through Amritsar and reached Afghanistan. From there he proceeded to Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Germany and Austria, Denmark and then Sweden. PK remembers how difficult it was for him to travel in these tough mountainous regions. At the Sweden border, Pradyumna was stopped by the immigration authorities, who wanted to know the purpose of his visit to Sweden. The poor fellow showed them his marriage photographs and letters with Charlotte which the officials refused to believe. The official found it unbelievable that a woman from Swedish Nobility would marry to an ordinary man from India. They feared that the man was lying and therefore they called her. It was only after Charlotte informed that that the said man was her husband that the authorities decided to let him in. It was remarkable that Charolotte had never referred to her family background to Pradyumna very unlike with our stiff traditions where family background and father’s business becomes bigger subject than the individual getting married.

This shows also a clear difference between the two cultures. The Indians value system and the Swede culture. At a time when we have witnessed many honored killings in India because of the caste tag, a woman of Swedish aristocracy marrying to an Indian Untouchable boy in the 1970s was itself unbelievable. For an India, which is still struggling to accept that Dalits are equal partners in development, this is an important lesson. When I asked this question to PK Mahanandia as what difference he found in the two cultures since he has been living in Sweden for nearly 40 years, he said, “I personally never felt any discrimination in private or in public. May it is due to my personal image in this country. People respect me by knowing my background as an outcast and married in the Swedish aristocracy’.

It is interesting that PK has been able to find some relationship between India’s caste system and similarities in Sweden. ‘Perhaps you know CHATURVARNA, of India is the same as in ancient structure of Nordic society. In Sweden It was called "Fyra Stånden. "Swedish society was divided into four main groups ADEL, PREST, BORGAR and BONDE. Their birth professions were like Chaturvarana in India. If you enter into Swedish Parliament There is a room of Chaturvarna (Where I had arranged Dalit arts exhibition), you can se 4 huge oil paintings representing Adel, prest , borgar and Bonde like Kshatriya, Brahmin, Vasya and Shudra. It seems Sweden has already come over the problem of Chaturvarna a long time back but India is not able to get rid of Chaturvarna mentally”, he says.

Mr. Mahanandia says that India can learn a lot from Sweden, as they are a better democracy than ours. India has a long way to develop itself into a mature democracy.

Interestingly, a documentary film on his life, broadcast by Swedish National television three times, became the entry point for common Swede to hear and understand the word "Dalit". Impressed with his impeccable credential P.K.Mahanandia was invited by a new political party JUNILISTAN to visit European Parliament Brussels and then nominated as a candidate to contest the elections for the Swedish Parliament. ‘I personally got 9.7% of all votes where margin is 8%. It means I would have come into the Swedish parliament if my party had got 4% vote in whole of Sweden. Last EU election 2002 party had got more than 14. %,” Says Mahanandia.

In Delhi, as the Lok Sabha passed the reservation for OBC bill, the merit mongers have again taken to the streets decrying government actions. Merit is again the talk of the town and Dalits are lampooned as dull, ordinary, lazy and non-meritorious people. I felt compelled to ask Mr Mahanandia, who is a living legend and respected for his art all over the world as what is his view of merit. He said, ‘Merit does not belong to any caste, creed or sex. If opportunity is given any one can rise. Reservation should be according to the population of the area in private and in public’.

Many of the dalits have converted to other religions because of the continuous humiliation at the hand of the caste Hindus. What is the right choice, I ask. According to him, ‘Buddhism is more human and more democratic way of living, after all now whole world is crying for humanity’. He sincerely feels that the struggle of Dalits is a battle of whole humanity. While treating love and marriage is private affair, he feels that discrimination is a disease and can only be cured by individuals. So it is important to understand that individual is supreme and that caste discrimination kills individual identity.

In 2005 Orissa’s Minister of State Mr Nagendra K Pradhan proposed his name for Nobel Peace Prize, for his outstanding work to promote peace and art all over the world. PK has started Orissa Cultural Centre in Boras, Sweden.

The most important part of Mahanandia’s achievements is that he is not bitter even after having faced so much of discrimination in life. In fact, his contribution to spread Indian art, culture and handicraft has been immensely respected and acknowledged in Sweden and other parts of the world. More over, in 1979 he instituted scholarship for needy students of art, Indian dance and music. His village had severe water problem and PK understood this and arranged drilling tube-well for solving the water crisis. In year 2000, he built ‘eco-cottage’ to encourage village tourism in Orissa. He regularly supports and sponsor activities in his village. A large number of his admirers visit this eco village in Orissa. It is a tribute to his conviction and work that 20% of his income is invested in Orissa.

As a rare individual, P.K.Mahanandia is a role model for all those who aspire high and fight against the unnatural injustice imposed by a priestly class. In Mahanandia’s success lies great lessons of humanism for India and its people. Indians need to be proud of him and his achievements but at the same point of time must introspect how legends like him are nurtured and respected world over but not in their own country. How long will we allow this to happen and then claim that we believe in ‘ Vasudhaiv Kutumbkum’. More importantly, can we really say that discrimination in India is based on economic condition and not on the basis of the caste identity of an individual? P.K.Mahanandia’s story also reminds us to get rid of our ‘matrimonial’ values based on caste and religions and bring different culture together by human bondage based on purely inter personal relationship of love, respect and affection.

Hunger and Starvation in Eastern Uttar-Pradesh

Dance of death haunts Mushahars in Kushinagar

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

It was another visit last week which left me exasperated, shocked and helpless as why the government, civil society and the concerned citizens have failed to address the issue of hunger, malnutrition and starvation. While politicians in Uttar-Pradesh are preparing for polls, the Mushahars, Bansfors and other such marginalized communities think of meal next day. There are many houses where people do not eat for many days, some time over a week. It is wintertime and one has to see to believe how chilling it is in the eastern Part of Uttar-Pradesh. With out any quilt or warm cloths, the children, aged people burn dry leaves which some time become their funeral pyre. The thatched hut catches fire very easily. But what happen if the hut catches fire? The officials go after a long week and might give them a thousand rupees or some kerosene and grains and get rid of their duty.

The energy of the organizations is more on bringing the people into the temples despite the known fact that the god is not going to give the poor anything. In fact, the God is there to take away whatever little they have. The same energy and publicity does not come for the rescue of those who are facing severe hunger and malnutrition. Some say that god loves the poor and that is why these deaths are happening in the Mushahar belt, perhaps the poorest of the poor. The fear of god is so much that people have given their children such names, which add to their humiliation. So we have names like Bikau
(saleable), Kukkur ( dog), Thug ( You know well). It is these names deliberately suggested by the priests so that they can do away with evil spirit. Poor Mushahrs are doing everything to do away with the evil spirit and nothing happen. We have huge boards of the ‘valiant ‘ ‘ Hindu Yuva Vahini’ of Swami Adiyta Nath, famous man from Gorakhpur who has been organizing the ‘Hindus’ against the possible threat of ‘Islam’ and ‘Christianity’. Buddhists are busy for organizing the 2550 years of Buddha’s parinirawana and crores of rupees will be spend in Kushingar itself but none of them have time to spare a moment and visit these villages where people continue to die and children continue to suffer.

It has been for more than four-five years that this region has seen alarming preposition of hunger related deaths. Then there is this strange brain fever and Kalajwar which comes to kill the Mushahar children. The thugs are active here to tell the people against the polio drops to be given to the children under the pretext that it would hurt.

Social Development Foundation has been raising the issue of hunger in this region and working constantly with the local groups and community organizations in these regions. We are providing you a few incidents of hunger during past few months, which reflect the grim nature of the problem. These incidents also shows how the government schemes have failed to change the life of people as there is lack of sincerity on part of the officials and authorities responsible to implement them. This apart, the deadly Japanese encephalitis (brain fever) has again targeted the children and according to newspaper reports more than 30 children have died so far in the area.

Landlessness is one of the reasons for hunger

Bikau 26 years old Mushahar used to live in Jamunhiya Tola of Dumri khash village in Chauri Chaura district, with his 70 years old mother and other family members. He used to get Rs 10/- per day for working in a private school in the village. The family also worked as agricultural labour but many days there was no work. The family did not have any ration card. The family was living in hunger with no cooking for many days. Finally Bikau died on 19th October, 2006.

Banshi s/o Thug, age 60 years Pipra Bujurg, Padrauna died on October 26th, 2006. He fell ill because of malnutrition and finally succumbed to his disease.

Jhagaru s/o Sanwaru aged 55, village Basdila, khadda, Kushinagar, died of financial constraints. He was suffering from various ailments and had to mortgage his land to some one to get medical treatment. He did not have anything to buy. Due to his inability to work, he remained starved for many days and finally died.

Marchchia w/o Shyam Lal, age 50 years died on 21st November 2006. She was living with her younger son and did not have an Antyodaya card. Family sources said that they did not cook any food for over 4 days. The cremation was done with the help of villagers.

Kamlawati, Mauna Garhwa, Bhagalpur Block, Deoria died on November 28th, 2006

Narayan Dom, 45 s/o Ganesh, village Dudhai, GP Chaf, Kushinagar died on December 9th, 2006. The villagers collected fund to do his cremation. His wife Rumali, mother and children were living in a rag-tag hut. They do not have a single inch of land to work on. According to his mother Shukravari, the family did not eat anything for the past eight days. It is ironical that his Antyodaya card also could not provide him any food. The fact is that the people have no money to buy ration. Moreover, the ration shop owners behave like the village bureaucrats and open the shop according to his convenience. According to family members they get ration for one month at the price of Rs 125/-, which is higher. They are not told of the break up of it. The ration was paid for one month and the Kotedar has filled up the farm for three months.

Such situation exists everywhere in Kushinagar and Deoria districts of Eastern Uttar-Pradesh. Social Development Foundation has raised these issues of hunger and starvation deaths in the Eastern Uttar-Pradesh for the past few years. In fact, my film, ‘Bhookh Se Ladte Mushahar’ amply tells the grave ground reality in the region. Ironically, Kushingar is not only an international town because of its relation to Lord Buddha but government of India has declared it as one of the district under the National Employment Guarantee Scheme and despite these facts the situation in the district remain unaltered.

State of affair of the government schemes

In village dhobaha, under Gram Sabha Mainpur, Kushinagar, the pathetic condition of villagers reflects the nature of work. Bhadahi s/o videshi is a landless agricultural worker with five sons and 2 daughters to feed. No person is educated in the village and the Pradhan does not want to come. They do not have any ration card to buy the subsidized food. Some time they eat ‘Bajare kee roti’ and maze. The kerosene is costing them Rs 40/- per liter from the black-market. Most of the bustee remains in dark in the night. There no pecca house (constructed house) and nothing to eat at the school for children. For the past two years one of the students have got scholarship says the villagers. According to Bhadahi and other villagers, the Pradhan took Rs 700/- to get the account opened for the Indira Awas Yojana but so far nothing has happened.

In the village Rajwabar, Khadahi, Bauki, 65, has four children. She does not have a ration card. She goes to reap, harvest the field of local powerful people and get Rs 10/- for a days work. Jagdish, 60 with three children want to work but did not have it. It is shocking that none of these people have got work under the NREGA which actually makes right to work as a fundamental right. It clearly indicates how our institutions have been functioning at the village level. When I ask him whether they went to the Pradhan (Sarpanch) of the village for the work, pat came the reply,” He would not give us any work. He look down upon us.’ Bimli, a Mushahar woman of the village went to the Pradhan for the work but returned empty handed. ‘ None of us have our job card for the work. We do not even have ration card.’ There are about 31 families in the Tola and all of them living as illegal squatters as Panchayat has not legally handed over the land. Not a single house is constructed on bricks or mud. The huts have the danger of catching fire in case of any mistake by the families. In the chilly cold wave, it become tiring for the children to live hungry yet here they have no options. Subhawati has seven children but no land. She does not have ration card to buy grains. Ram Surat has no land and yet has an above the poverty line card. The villagers here complain that for getting an Antyodaya card they have to pay a bribe of Rs 300-Rs 500/- per card.

In village Kuhlva Pokhar Bhinda which falls under Kasaya block, people charged village Sarpanch Hari Narayan of helping his own family people. Hari Narayan is a Dusadh, which is a Dalit community here but relatively better than the Mushahars and Bansfors. The Sarpanch has collected all the job card of NREGA and no work is given to the people. The ration shop owner takes Rs 110/- Rs 125 for providing Antyodaya variety of ration, which is 25kg rice at the rate of Rs 3/- per kg and 10 kg of wheat at the rate of Rs 2. The total amount for this come to Rs 95/- yet despite all the instructions the local ration shop owners charges the freight and other charges from the poor villagers.

The school children openly mentioned that they have not been getting any mid day meals in the schools. For the past three months it was not there and have just started and that too is Khichadi. Ask any Mushahar about his earning and ration card and the answer is similar.’ We are Mushahars. We do not have any land even for constructing a house.

No job cards under NREGA

In a shocking incident Shankar 25, who has a son now, had to shift to his wife’s parental home in the absence of a place to live in the village Ram Swaroop and his brothers too have no land. They got some work under the NREGA but just for three days. Later, the Sarpanch took away their job card under the pretext that the cards need to be verified by the higher authorities only then the money would come.

In village Benupur under Gram Sabha Saphan about 60 families of Mushahar lives along with other communities. Total number of families in the Tola is 141. About 40 of them have got job cards and were allocated work for 4-6 days. None of them have land to till and just 11 families have Red card for the Below the Poverty Line category.

According to Ramesh, a local Mushahar agricultural worker, Mushahar children have not got any scholarship in the school. There is no mid day meal. A local ‘social activist’ asked the villagers to contribute their land for building a school for the community. The Gram Panchayat gave him land, which was being tilled by the Mushahrs. The man never developed the school. Instead, put a hut in the location, which later caught fire. One does not know whether the fire was accidental or mischievous but a number of Mushahrs are facing charges for threatening the social workers. It is very unfortunate that there is no school. Mushahar Vikas Pahal, an organizations also started a school and promised scholarship yet not much has been done.

What do we do

The condition of Mushahrs and other such communities is worsening in the region of Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Deoria and other districts of Uttar-Pradesh. Social Development Foundation has been working with local NGOs and community based organizations in the region and has been highlighting the issue of hunger, malnutrition and landlessness for past five years. We feel that time has come to take this issue to a logical conclusion. For the officials in the government it is easier to say that these are not hunger deaths but let the officials say ‘what kind of life is it’ if a person does not have two time ordinary meal to eat. Can doctors claim that whatever Mushahars are eating at the moment constitute ‘diet’ according to medical ethics? The fact is that the life these people are living is utterly miserable and disgusting and need a concrete answer from all of us who are concerned about their plight.

It is time for various organizations to come together and act on it and take the authorities to task. Half-hearted measures of distributing ration do not work. The fact is that Mushahars and Bansfors have lost their traditional rights. They have very little land and virtually jobless. There is no education for the children. How will they educate their children when they do not have a hut to live and some thing to eat? Let us come out of hypocrisy and develop a comprehensive package to deal with this chronic hunger, which has killed thousands of people so far. The issue of hunger and starvation cannot be addressed from these half-hearted measures of so-called employment guarantee, which ultimately become tool for the local political class to oppress the poor. It is important that civil society, NGOs, government officials sit together and chart out a long term action plan to save the people from this manmade onslaught of hunger and malnutrition.

Ambedkar, Ayodhya aur Dalit Andolan

Book Review

By Ram Puniyani

(Book Reviewed: Ambedkar, Ayodhya aur Dalit Andolan by Vidya Bhushan Rawat (Hindi), Danish Books, Delhi, p. 147, Rs 100)

The mobilization of dalits and Adivasis in large numbers by 'RSS combine' to act as its foot soldiers made many a social activists feel disturbed about the ongoing political dynamics. How come a politics which aims precisely to suppress these sections of society 'succeed' and succeed so well in getting them do the mayhem and killing? The question has been addressed by many a social activists, concerned scholars but of course more needs to be said about the same in the complex political scenario where caste dynamics is very central to the political processes going on. It is this context that the torture of a dalit family by upper castes, relatively, is important. While going through the book one is regularly reminded about the intense commitment of the author to the social issues and his grasp on the ground reality. The latter fact becomes obvious as many of these articles relate to his experience as a political worker devoted to dalit issues in particular.

The book is a collection of Rawat's articles written at various points of time. He points out that the Hindutva of RSS combine and Ram temple movement are essentially not religious phenomenon but are the one's guided by the political agenda aiming at crushing the self respect of dalits, social and political rights of dalits. One very simple but pertinent observation of his draws our attention to the name of awards and what type of values they represent. The example he has chosen is that of Dronacharya, the guru who asks Eklavya to sacrifice his thumb as the Guru Dakshina (the offering to the guru for the education given). This is essentially a pointer to the caste rules of the Brahminical values dominated society, where a dalit cannot be given education. Can we call ourselves as democratic and just if our awards are named after such Gurus?

RSS combine has been doing its best to widen the divide between the dalits and Muslims, two very deprived sections of our society. Its wily character is visible all through, to select 6 th December the anniversary day of Dr. Ambedkar for demolishing the mosque, and getting a dalit boy to do the shila pujan for Ram temple! While Ambedkar's ideas about Brahiminic Hinduism are very clear, he regards it as a curse for dalits, and says that though he was born a Hindu he will not die a Hindu, at the same time the propagators of Hindu Rashtra are projecting as if Ambedkar and RSS were having similar set of ideas! The hold of theory of Karma is keeping the dalit community in the throes of backwardness, all the social reformers for dalits had resorted to 'reason' as against faith propound by the politics in the name of religion. The author moans that while Dr. Ambedkar's Buddhism was based on reason today the ritualistic aspect of Buddhism is given more importance. The only path of liberation for the oppressed is to come out from the grip of the religious dogmas, the grip of proliferating Babas, Acharyas and to resort to the struggle of the rights of the oppressed.

Rawat questions the necessity of politics, which wants to resort more and more to caste identity. While we want to struggle against the very caste system how we can ourselves operate on the basis of caste. Even within dailts there are gradations, caste as graded inequality, the prevalent notion thus is not just about opposing the RSS combine's Hindutva but also those tendencies amongst dalits, which legitimize caste identity. The opposition to those opportunist leaders, who trade the dalit votes for the narrow selfish goals, also comes out loud and clear. While he upholds the contribution of Kanshiram, the mentor of Mayawati, he is critical of the current BSP policies of allying with upper castes, and thinks such opportunism cannot pay dividends in the long run. It should be pointed out that Dr. Ambedkar preferred to resign from the union cabinet rather than opportunistically continuing in the cabinet when his ideas were being ignored.

The author has got the essence of Ambedkar thought. He wants the dalits and those standing for dalit rights to concentrate more on the thoughts of Ambedkar rather than his statues. One will question his characterization of the Congress during freedom movement. As per him, and correctly so, Muslim League represented the interests of Muslim Nawabs. His formulation that the Congress was just the representative of Hindu landlords is off the mark. Congress was a broad platform, which had the right winger representative of landlords, the centrists like Gandhi and the radicals like Nehru who were for land reforms and progressive social policies. The representation of Hindu landlords was mainly with Hindu Mahasabha and very marginally with Congress, and later RSS articulated the interests of this group at ideological level. We need to see the social phenomenon just in black or white colors, there are shades of grey

Surely his comparison of Fascism with the politics based on the laws of Manu is very apt. It is for that reason that the Hindutva forces have been talking highly of Manu's laws, and wanted Indian constitution based on this book, Manusmriti, which was burnt by Dr. Ambedkar. Rawat brings to our notice the thoughts of M.N.Rpy, the outstanding radical humanist, who contributed many original ideas on the politics in Indian context. And Roy's analysis of Fascism matches with Hindutva agenda as it unfolded during the BJP led NDA regime and the ongoing politics in the states' ruled by BJP. The last article of the book on 'Dalit movement on the crossroads', is the most thought provoking one. The trajectory and pitfalls of dalit movement are well highlighted and surely these thoughts can be the building blocks for the future of the dalit movement, if it has to succeed in getting justice for the large sections of Indian society.

While some of the formulations are brusque and need refinement, overall one will tend to appreciate the views of this young and dynamic writer-activist. His rooting in the thoughts of Ambedkar and M.N.Roy is a valuable combination and gives a correct picture of Indian society. One only hopes , that he author converts some of his articles in to theme essays, which can be more comprehensive in doing justice to the topics under discussion.

Dalit Protests in Maharastra

Is a new Dalit movement emerging from Maharastra ?

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat



If television channels are to be believed then the Dalit rampage in Maharastra is an outcome of what they term as ‘simple’ incident of desecration of Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s statue in Kanpur. ‘Even when Kanpur was not burning why should the Dalit protester take Mumbai to ransom’, an anchor remarked. The responses on various websites were like ‘send’ these guys back to villages or ‘appeasement’ by the government. The other felt pain to term it as ‘political’ while liberals were questioning the wisdom of the Dalits about why they have been pained over a statue. ‘ Do we need statues in India, said a hypocrite TV anchor. Surely, we do not need statues in India but
who have more statutes then the parents and grand parents of these anchors and experts. Can they tell Lal Krishna Advani and his company, as why are they fighting to put two statutes where the Babari Masjid once stood. So many statutes of Hanuman and other gods are there taking our large space while very little for human being to live a life of dignity in India. If we become iconoclast in India, the Brahmin would go out of work for they have monopolized to keep all these statutes in every part of India. What are these temples about and why should they keep so many statues of so-called Gods. Throw them away and give these temples to the poor and all our housing problems would be resolved.

Coming back to main point of Dalit fury in Maharastra where life has been paralyzed. ‘It is ironic, said few experts, that Dalits in UP are not doing anything but in Maharastra they are unnecessarily agitated.’ Now, the powerful UP Police, which spinelessly goes around with the local MLAs, has arrested a young man called Arun Valmiki for allegedly defacing Ambedkar’s statue in Kanpur. That is the best tradition of a brahmanical administration to covert an issue of Hindu hatred into an internal Dalit fighting. You can see how immediately after the Khairlanji incident, the one person who was suspended for dereliction of his duty was a Dalit constable. So the authorities feel that a constable has not filed FIR and therefore need punishment but the powerful upper caste hate campaigners sitting in the offices remain untouched and unaccountable. What is the power of a constable if a crowed is on rampage? Why no police officer was dismissed or suspended for dereliction of duty in Khairlanji.

Therefore, the uprising in Maharastra has a signal for the self styled mainstream Dalit political leaders and parties. Mend your ways or get lost as the young Dynamic Dalit leadership would emerge out of a crisis from Maharastra. It is certain that incidents like Khairlanji and Gohana would fuel the Dalit anger and turn them to streets. Out of this anger and frustration would emerge a leadership which would not compromise like their leaders.

Painful it is, when one see, how the mainstream Dalit political parties find no shame in aligning with the thugs of Hindutva and even campaigned for them. How can an Ambedkarite ever think of joining hand with fascist forces in India without offering an apology? And it is not just once; the same forces are again ready to embrace the Hindutva for their own ulterior motives.

One can see what happen to Hindutva. It is a philosophy of betrayals. It betrays those who it embraces. See how moralistic Lal Krishna Advani was yesterday in Parliament when he felt ‘shocked’ and ‘shameful’ as central minister Shibu Soren was convicted. And our CBI want death sentence for him. The same CBI, which cannot get punishment for Narsihma Rao or Rajiv Gandhi in the Boforse Scandal and which spinelessly, took order from Lal Krishna Advani when he was home minister and facing cases of Babari Masjid Demolition. I am sure, Advani would demand the same punishment and feel double shock after hearing Navjot Singh Siddhu, a BJP MP, very loud mouth, for allegedly murdering a person in Punjab. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held Siddhu guilty for the same. One hope we will have same kind of ruckus in Parliament by the Hindutva party.

It is more than shocking that our Parliament did not have time so far to discuss violence on Dalits. They do not have even time to discuss why the courts are intervening in the matter of executive. The fact of the matter is that our political class is the most opportunistic one in the world and the Dalit leaders are no different than their brahmanical masters. They have used money and funds to propagate their own interest while keeping quiet on the violence against Dalits. Over two months have passed and Parliament has not time to discuss Khairlanji while issue of Saurav Ganguli’s inclusion become more important for politicians to debate in the parliament.

Khairlanji was flashpoint in Maharastra. Incident of atrocities against Dalits are on the rise. Like every incident related to Muslims, the state had the easier way of describing the incident as ISI sponsored. Now with growing dalit violence, it is the Naxal intrusion in the Dalit ranks alleged the officials.

Those who do not understand the importance of Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar in the lives of millions of Dalits world over make the folly of terming these events as shocking and well planned incidents as ‘nothing’ specific. Ambedkar’s statues are not like any one else’s statues. They are not erected by the governments as done in many other cases of so-called ‘freedom fighters’ and political leaders. Ambedkar symbolize Dalits fight for Dignity and honor. Ambedkar mean the strongest and most potent symbol of Dalit power and assertion.


Maharastra government’s failure to punish the perpetrators of the Khairlanji violence is like other incidents. We have not heard what happened to the conspirators of Kumher massacre in Rajasthan or Tsundur in Andhra Pradesh. There is virtually no information to what happened to the perpetrators of ghastly crimes in Gohana and Jhajjar in Haryana. Therefore, it is a pattern to attack the Dalits whenever they assert their identity. Whenever they perform better than any upper caste Hindu, Dalits would have to pay price, that is what our system has failed to protect the dalits against this savagery of the upper caste Hindus.

A friend recently asked me that the violence against Dalits is mainly being perpetuated more by the backward communities so why I had used the word upper caste violence against the Dalits. Agreed, that the backward communities are the front rankers in hitting the Dalits but they are faithful slaves of the brahmanical institutions of criminal violence against the Dalits. The entire brahmanical structure is based on caste based identities and every caste feel proud of identity in terms of ‘bigger’ than the lower one. Ambedkar defined it as ‘graded’ inequality. It was not a fight between equals and unequal. The battle here is more difficult because of the compartmentalization of our caste structure. Brahmanical values thrived on this rigid regimentation of communities in their identities and their contradictions. Hence, the backward classes or simply the hinduised shudras may be attacking the Dalits but they are simply following the guidance of the brahmanical scriptures and values which rule on the small contradiction between different communities. Lastly, every person above the level and who instigate violence is an upper caste in relative term because that is the nature of caste violence in India. It is important to understand this psyche of the Varna system. The Dalits, backwards and even the upper caste Hindus who feel uncomfortable here, must understand that as long as you are part of Varna system you would always oppress the lower one. That is for sure as we feel immense proud in our identities. Dr Ambedkar knew this and provided a humanist Buddhist alternative which he redefined according to his own convictions and embraced with nearly half a millions followers in 1956. It is important that without changing our social system, the Dalits and backwards would continue to fight against each other. The Dalits have taken the leadership. A large number of them have embraced Buddhism and do not live in the past of caste system. It is now essential for the backward communities if they feel that they too are victim of the caste system, they should follow the new path. Nothing will come out of anti Brahmanism if we are not embracing a new socio cultural system. Anti Brahmanism would only strengthen the next powerful communities and they would do the same as the Brahmins did as it has no philosophy only nepotism and identity to work on. The Thevars, Yadvas, Kurmis, Kunbis, Jats, Gujjars, Marathas and so on would continue to suck the blood of the Dalits as they inherently feel themselves as ‘higher’ than the Dalits and hence are not ready to follow the Dalits. How can they do it hence they are ready to follow various Brahmin Swamis but at the same time raise the slogan of ‘anti Brahmin’ movement for political purposes. Such political purposes will not solve the socio cultural crisis of India as long as we continue to be part of Varna system.

Now, there is some uproar in Parliament but that would not suffice. Political allegation would be made by parties to score their political points. The Hindutva party can blame every one from the SP-BSP to the congress and nothing will change. The silver lining from Maharastra’s spontaneous movement is that it has resurrected the new dynamism. Baba Saheb always felt that a radical powerful dalit leadership would always emerge from a movement or agitation though the Dalit leaders who retires from the government jobs first create a party and then want people to follow them in their pursuit for power. But, here the situation is different as Dalit youth have taken to the street and particularly the presence of women in the movement shows how far the movement has gone.

It is therefore important for these dynamic youths not to allow political parties use their initiative for their own political purposes. They should use this opportunity to develop a vibrant Dalit movement with strong political convictions which can send jitters in the spines of all those who want to co-opt the great legacy of Baba Saheb Dr Ambedkar. If the youths do not take the leadership in their hands, they would end up as what happened in the creation of Uttaranchal state. A spontaneous movement of the students created the state though wrongful demands yet after the creation it is the mainstream parties who are reaping the benefits of it. The parties have forgotten virtually all those who laid down their life. Nepal has similar example. The power is in the hands of those who licked the boots of the king and served him like slave and those died protesting against monarchy are forgotten easily. The followers of Ambedkar should not allow this to happen.

Dalits saved the democracy in India curtsy Dr Ambedkar. They vote in large number and participate in the festival of democracy more than any other community. And nearly sixty years have passed to freedom of India and our institutions and social system remain confined to a few elite caste and groups. Why have we allowed this to happen? How prophetic Ambedkar was, when he said that if there were no social democracy, the Dalits would themselves blow up the political democracy in the country. What happened in Maharastra was a clear case of frustration in the Dalit youth, when the system so laborious developed by Dr Ambedkar, refused to shed its biases and prejudices against the Dalits. How long will Dalit glorified this great democracy and Parliament when every day their life is endangered and their livelihood is snatched from them. It is not that the entire Maharastra burnt out of a desecration of Baba Saheb’s statue which was most unfortunate but the unease was there as the shameless government of the state had done very little to bring the culprits to the book. If the democratic institutions do not give justice to the Dalits on time, mere symbolic presidents, prime ministers and chief ministers would gladdened the heart of them for a few days but in longer term, would increase the unease. And remember, it would be difficult for any government to curtail the Dalit rage if political democracy does not pave way for social democracy. It is clear that Dalits have ideological clarity and strong convictions than most of the other communities. It would be nearly impossible to stop them now if the governments, political system does not behave in an unbiased way, without prejudices.


Already, newspapers are writing a lot on the so-called infiltration of the Naxal movement in the Dalit groups but the happy news is that Dalit Panthers are resurrecting and it is reassuring that Maharastra would again lead the Dalits all over the country with progressive ideas and uncompromising stand on various issues confronting the nation. If the movement has to survive and lead the country, the Dalit movement, who ever leads it, has to reassure its people to say a big NO in an unambiguous term to the communal fascist forces and secondly fight the honor of the people against the onslaught of international parties colluding with the national one, on their natural resources. In the meanwhile, those who say that UP Dalits are not agitated because of BSP is leading them, may be wrong in future. Dalits in Uttar-Pradesh may vote BSP for political purposes yet inside their heart they are highly agitated. And surely flirting with the upper caste and the Hindutva would further damage the cause of the Dalit empowerment. But the more the Dalit leadership fails the people, the better it is for a new radical Dalit leadership in the state. Maharastra, they say, did not have a Dalit leader but the movement would definitely throw leadership and surely, Uttar-Pradesh Dalit will also find a way out, if their political leaders continue to play games with the Hindutva as well as capitalist power elite. It is time of reckoning in the legacy of Ambedkarite movement and a time of introspection for our political parties and governments.

December 1, 2006

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,