July 01, 2009
"Law and Behold"
Check out this link from the Hindustan Times Newspaper
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=ViewsSectionPage&id=2c23f78d-1daa-486f-98df-956dab33738f&Headline=Law+and+behold
Posted by klajja at 10:28 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
January 29, 2009
My Sobering Reality: The Slumdog Millionaire's India
as published on Jim Wallis' blog: http://www.sojo.net/blog/godspolitics/2009/01/23/slumdog-millionaire%e2%80%99s-india-my-sobering-reality/
(Note: Sojo.net was experiencing technical difficulties last week but should be online soon.)
***
by Joseph D'souza
The movie Slumdog Millionaire and the Booker Prize winning novel White Tiger have highlighted the non-shiny part of India. Far from exploiting poverty, these are stories about India which demand a global response – especially for the sake of the children.
This is the India of 80% of the population -- the India of the slums, the outcastes, the exploited, and of abject poverty. The India where Dalit, tribal, and poor children are sold into the sex trade. Where fully healthy children are maimed into becoming beggars. Where children become victims of religious communalism. And where the elitist classes keep them out of prosperity and development by not being willing to change a system that disenfranchises the children of the downtrodden.
I have worked with the disenfranchised and marginalised for most of my life. I’m a citizen of India who is proud of my country’s progress in recent years, yet I must point out the obvious again. The movie is not about selling the poverty of India as a British newspaper alleged (“Shocked by Slumdog's poverty porn”, Alice Miles, The Times, Jan. 14, 2009). Instead, it is the story about the real India of the majority where children become the primary victims of all that is dysfunctional in society (as The Guardian pointed out).
As the movie is released in India this week, expect another barrage of attacks by a section of the elitist Indian media. Likely there will be heavy emphasis on the simple fact that this is a movie made by a white Brit! All this while forgetting that this movie -- which was won Golden Globes and other awards and was nominated for several Oscars -- is far truer to Indian reality than the popular fantasized Bollywood movies.
But isn’t this the time for truth-telling about what ails India and our world?
Are not the children of our day the primary victims of caste and racial discrimination, human trafficking, war, poverty, and religious extremism?
The world has about 1.2 billion children -- with India and China accounting for more than a fourth -- 400 million children. The vast majority of India’s roughly 250 million children are affected by dire poverty, caste discrimination, and exploitation.
Millions of children living in Africa, Latin America, and the Muslim world suffer the same plight. Many of these are in similarly desperate situations. Is it crystal clear to you like it is to me? The slumdog of our generation is the boy or girl less than 14 years old.
I have a sobering, reoccurring thought these days. Is the main sin of our generation what we are doing to children -- both born and unborn? What is our part in changing the conditions of the slumdog kids of the world?
Posted by klajja at 06:44 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
December 23, 2008
Will Obama Spell Justice Outside the US?
I'm back on Jim Wallis' blog...
http://www.sojo.net/blog/godspolitics/?p=4927
Posted by klajja at 10:48 AM in Articles | Comments (0)
Baroness Cox Advocates for Orissa's Dalits
The following is the text of a speech given to Britain's House of Lords by Baroness Caroline Cox following her recent visit to Orissa.
India Debate 11.57 am
Moved By Baroness Cox
To call attention to recent developments in India; and to move for Papers.
Baroness Cox: My Lords, I thank every noble Lord who will be speaking in this debate, as the topic is a daunting challenge, given the vastness and complexity of the great nation of India. I am therefore grateful that noble Lords with longer and wider experience of India will make their distinctive contributions to remedy the limitations and omissions of my own.
I must naturally begin by expressing the profound sorrow that we all felt at the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai and by extending our deep sympathy to all who are still suffering in the aftermath of those terrible days. I will then raise three issues of concern in a spirit of respect for India as a long-established friend of this country and as the world's largest democracy. It is characteristic of friendship that one can share concerns openly and constructively and it is in that spirit that I will raise the outbreaks of violence against religious minorities, including the Muslims in Gujarat and the Christians recently in Orissa and Karnataka; the restrictions on religious freedom posed by the imposition of anti-conversion laws in seven states; and, finally, the plight of dalits.
With regard to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, there has been a wide range of responses to those horrific events, which have been usefully summarised in the excellent briefing paper prepared by the House of Lords Library. One result of such wide-ranging public discussion and speculation has been summarised by Dr Paul Cornish of Chatham House, who argues that the saturation coverage has played into the hands of the terrorists, providing them with a gratuitous plethora of justification and rationales.
“The terrorists might have assumed, quite correctly as it happens, that the world’s media and the terrorism analysis industry would very quickly fill in any gaps for them”.
I am therefore not going to play into their hands with further speculation about their ideological justifications and rationales. However, will the Minister say what continuing support Her Majesty’s Government are giving to India in the aftermath of this massive tragedy?
The recurring problem of violence, perpetrated by Hindu fundamentalists against religious minorities, is a product of the ideology called Hindutva, which conceives of India as one nation, one culture, one religion. It is an ideology that denigrates religious minorities and rejects the right to change one’s religion, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and groups that espouse this ideology, including the VHP, are widely implicated in anti-minority violence. Such extremist political movements are rejected by Hindus committed to the idea of a secular India, but they pose very serious challenges.
In 2002, about 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were massacred in Gujarat. Christians have been repeatedly targeted in recent years. The attacks are especially widespread in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh states, and although a recent outbreak of violence in Karnataka was relatively rapidly contained by the authorities, impunity for these sorts of attacks is cause for concern. In Orissa state, an outbreak of violence against Christians over Christmas in 2007 prefigured an onslaught on a much larger scale this autumn.
On 23 August this year, following the assassination of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, widespread violence against Christians erupted. The atrocities were committed despite the claim by Maoists that they had carried out the killing. After the assassination, despite pleas for caution by church and secular leaders, including representatives of political parties, the VHP arranged for his body to be taken on a 200-kilometre circuit. Violence followed in the wake of this funeral procession, fanned by media disinformation and the chanting of Hindu nationalist and anti-Christian slogans, targeting Christians and church buildings. It is widely believed that the violence erupted so quickly because it was pre-planned.
We are now approaching the first anniversary of the previous outbreak of violence and radical groups are aggressively pushing for a state-wide shutdown on 25 December, which would make life very difficult for beleaguered Christians wishing to celebrate Christmas, and could easily lead to another eruption of violence. Although it is encouraging to know that a delegation representing the EU, including a British representative, recently visited Orissa to assess the violence, it would be reassuring if the Minister could indicate that our high commission will monitor the situation very carefully this Christmas.
HART, the NGO with which I work, visited Kandhamal district, the epicentre of the violence, in October, and we saw what had been taking place. The toll of violence includes 69 people identified as having been killed and approximately 50 still unaccounted for and presumed dead. Among those killed were one man who was buried alive, several people who were burned to death and others who were cut to pieces. At least 160 churches of all Christian denominations, approximately 5,000 homes and an unspecified number of Christian businesses have been destroyed, and 54,000 people have been displaced from their homes and forced to take shelter in 14 state-sponsored relief camps in Kandhamal district, together with many hundreds who are living in non-state camps, including in two very overcrowded buildings in Cuttack town. It was also estimated that about 20,000 people were still living in the jungle or had fled to big cities.
In addition to the violence in Kandhamal district, 13 other districts had experienced similar atrocities, including killings and the looting and burning of churches and homes, and two other relief camps had to be established for approximately 2,700 more people who had had to flee from their homes.
In our report, we concluded that the Orissa state government had failed to provide protection for the Christian minority population, allowing widespread violations of human rights—including killings, rape, looting and the destruction and desecration of places of worship, homes and other property—and that the forced conversion of some Christians to Hinduism constitutes a serious violation of the right to religious freedom enshrined in the UDHR, to which the Indian Government are a signatory. It is noteworthy that Hinduism and the caste system have only relatively recently, in the past 50 years, been introduced into this region. It is characteristic of Hindutva ideology that those forced conversions to Hinduism are propagated by the same groups that denounce conversions to other religions. There was also deep concern that the Orissa state government have failed to bring many of the perpetrators of crimes and violence to account, and that failure to bring to justice those who are allegedly guilty of these atrocities was making it impossible for victims to return to their homes because they feared that impunity would encourage further attacks.
Taken together, the violence inflicted on Christian communities, the reports of forced conversion and the threats of more to come, and the failure to provide enough security to encourage the Christians to return home appeared to constitute a policy of attempted religious cleansing of the region. Moreover, the viciousness and the scale of the attacks would have been impossible without a sustained hate campaign over many years. That still continues in the Oriya and Hindu media, targeting both Muslims and Christians.
In our report, we offered a number of recommendations for consideration. As the Orissa state government have insufficient resources for policing and judicial functions, police should be brought in from other states to receive and process complaints, including women police to register and investigate gender crimes. It was also suggested to us that the Central Bureau of Investigation, the CBI, should initiate an inquiry into the official dereliction of duty by the authorities in Orissa state for failing to prevent and control the violence. The Roman Catholic nun, Sister M, who suffered gang rape and torture, has added her voice to this request. There is also a widely expressed demand for adequate compensation for and the return of looted property.
Resources are urgently needed to improve conditions in the camps for the displaced. The conditions are horrific with massive overcrowding. We estimate that in the tents of the outdoor camps every individual has 12 inches to sleep alongside the next person. Priorities for provision include better healthcare, especially for women needing obstetric and gynaecological treatment, and paediatric provision for children and infants. There is also an urgent need for baby food and for access to education for children. As the fear of renewed attacks is preventing people from returning to their homes, they are pleading for the retention of the Central Reserve Police Force on location for as long as necessary to ensure their safety. Finally, an inquiry is needed into the regional Oriya language press for complicity in fomenting hatred and misrepresentation of facts. The state government should insist on that and it is incumbent on the Press Council to do so.
Will Her Majesty’s Government raise with the Indian Government their concern over the failure of the state and central governments to ensure the safety of their citizens and their right to practise the religion of their choice? There is concern that the ad hoc annual EU-India human rights dialogue might be seen as the main mechanism for doing this. That would seem to be insufficient as it is seen as insubstantial and non-transparent. Has DfID been able to help with resources for relief for those who are currently living in the camps for the displaced? They are suffering in appalling conditions from overcrowding and an acute shortage of basic facilities, with many related illnesses. Further, will DfID consider supporting the longer-term rebuilding and rehabilitation effort?
I turn briefly to widespread concern at the anti-conversion legislation now in place in seven states. This applies to those who wish to convert from Hinduism to another faith: in practice, it does not prohibit conversion to Hinduism from other faiths. The legislation requires anyone wishing to convert from Hinduism to give advance notice to the district authorities, rendering them vulnerable to pressures of many kinds. In the case of Gujarat, the person who converts another must obtain prior permission of the authorities.
These requirements obviously hinder the freedom to choose and change religion, in violation of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which India is a signatory. These laws also threaten charitable activities, since the conditions under which conversions are banned include, for example, “allurement” by the “grant of any material benefit”. The problem of restrictions on religious freedom is not unique to India: such violations of this fundamental freedom must be seen as cause for concern in any country where a majority religion denies its citizens the freedom to choose and change religion. Sadly, there are many in the world today. Her Majesty’s Government have previously given assurances in Parliament that they have raised concerns about proposed anti-conversion legislation in Sri Lanka, which is modelled on Indian state-level laws, yet often refer to these Indian laws as an internal matter. Can the Minister tell us whether Her Majesty’s Government have raised, and/or will raise, this cause for concern with the Indian Government in the same way as has been done with the Sri Lankan Government?
The final topic to which I wish to refer raises the plight of the dalits, those deemed to be outside the caste system and therefore treated as inherently untouchable. Their predicament is unenviable. Unable to take work or to come into contact with members of the caste system, many are doomed to undertake the most humiliating and unsanitary tasks, such as the 700,000 or more manual scavengers dealing with human excrement. Others are so poor that they become involved in bonded labour from which they cannot escape, so that this form of servitude is passed from one generation to the next. Dalits are susceptible to any form of exploitation and there is widespread caste-based violence against them. In an attempt to escape from their outcast status, many dalits are converting from Hinduism to another faith—Buddhism, Islam or Christianity. This disruption of the traditional caste system is causing tensions and attracting opposition, especially from proponents of the Hindutva, some of which may be reflected in violence against religious minorities.
I have witnessed the human dimension of the plight of the dalits when visiting a clinic we in HART are supporting in Tamil Nadu for dalits with HIV/AIDS. These unfortunate people are doubly untouchable, as HIV/AIDS adds its own stigma of untouchability to their outcast status. It is a privilege to embrace such vulnerable people, but the joy they express when we touch them or eat the food they have prepared brings home the appalling suffering they endure as the ultimately marginalised and dehumanised members of Indian society. This is also a challenge to the EU-India Strategic Partnership joint action plan’s description of India as, “a paradigm of Asia’s syncretic culture and how various religions can flourish in a plural, democratic and open society”.
It is impossible in one speech to begin to do justice to the vast nation of India with its indescribably rich tapestry of ethnic groups, cultures, traditions, achievements and problems. I greatly look forward to the speeches of other noble Lords who will bring information and insights from their own knowledge and experience to create a constructive and comprehensive debate worthy of the issues confronting this great nation which we are proud to call a friend. I beg to move.
Posted by klajja at 08:52 AM in Articles | Comments (0)
December 15, 2008
Dayal Wins Human Dignity Award
Notice arriving by email on December 14, 2008 from Professor Prabhu Guptara, UBS:
Dr John Dayal has won the Maanav Adhikaar Paaritaushik (Human Dignity Award) in memory of Professor M. M. Guptara.
Dr Dayal has spent his life in investigating, and then helping individual cases of human rights abuse, as well as struggling against structural human rights abuse aimed at whole groups (such as Dalits, Muslims and Christians), and fighting organised human rights abuse - for example in Vadodara and in Orissa.
At a time in our nation's history when we have been struck down from the heights by the current global crisis as well as by the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, it is important not only to celebrate the strengths and beauties of the various cultures in our country, but also to recognise individual efforts to cleanse our country of its evils.
"Over several decades, and at the cost of his own health and finances, Dr Dayal has helped people regardless of ethnicity, gender, economic status, religion or any other criterion. That is something surely worth celebrating," said Professor Prabhu Guptara.
Recognising that the award is only a token, the Guptara family deeply appreciates Dr. Dayal's lifetime of exceptional efforts and service to our country.
Posted by klajja at 06:27 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
December 10, 2008
India's Challenge After Mumbai
One of my latest articles on Jim Wallis' blog...
http://www.sojo.net/blog/godspolitics/?p=4500
Posted by klajja at 07:56 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
November 24, 2008
Article on Jim Wallis Blog
Please see our recent article published on Jim Wallis' blog: God's Politics
http://www.sojo.net/blog/godspolitics/?p=4017&continue
Posted by klajja at 01:17 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
November 17, 2008
The Audacity of Hope: Obama’s Victory has Given Wings to the Dalit Dream
Many have asked our opinion on the results of the American election. While we're not prepared to issue an official statement, the following article is worth a read.
The Audacity of Hope: Obama’s Victory has given Wings to the Dalit Dream
by Shobhan Saxena
9 Nov 2008, 0210 hrs IST
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Sunday_Specials/The_Audacity_of_Hope/
articleshow/3690305.cms
Hope is a tricky word. It never guarantees anything, but it makes the world go round. Hope was the only possession of the skinny lad with dark skin and a funny name, starting with B, when he arrived in New York, wondering if America had a place for him, too. During his years at Columbia, as he majored in political science, the young man learnt a few important lessons from some American greats. Emerson taught him that “consistency is a virtue of an ass”. From Abe Lincoln, he learnt that freedom is worth dying for.
As he pored over history books, he became sad and angry. And he came out of the campus craving for Change — not just for himself but for his people who hadn't been free as long as he could remember. The name of this man was Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, and the year was 1913. Barack Obama came out of the same university with the same degree 70 years later, with the same mantra on his lips: Change.
As he gets ready to assume the most powerful office on this planet, a few sceptics are wondering if Obama is a product of the Black movement for civil rights. To be fair, he has never claimed that legacy. He is not the son of a descendant of those Africans who were abducted from their land and sold as slaves in the New World, where they shed sweat as whips lashed and bloodied their skin.
Obama might have avoided invoking names like Malcolm X in his stump speeches for practical reasons, but the blacks see him continuing the lineage of King, X & Company. But, they aren’t the only ones who look up to him; the Dalits of India, too, see Obama as a symbol of Black Power, a phenomenon they closely identify with. After all, America’s black movement has had a great influence on the Dalits’ fight for their rights.
So impressed was Ambedkar with Lincoln that when he launched a political party for Dalits, he called it the Republican Party of India — his tribute to Lincoln, the GOP leader who fought for ending slavery in the US. “Like Dalits in India, the blacks in US also faced discrimination in public transport, schools and jobs. When Ambedkar saw this, he could empathise with them and he supported their struggle,” says Chandrabhan Prasad, Dalit activist and writer. “Even after he came back to India, Ambedkar kept following the black movement in the US.”
The fifties were feverish — for blacks in the US and Dalits in India. Fired up by the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr, the blacks began to believe that being born in America didn't make them American. So, they began to fight for their rights. In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery. In 1956, King began to walk for the freedom of his people. In 1963, more than 200,000 people joined King’s March on Washington and listened to his “I Have a Dream” speech with tears in their eyes. In India, Ambedkar closely followed the King’s moves and led more than 500,000 Dalits to take refuge in Buddhism in 1956.
During the next couple of decades, the blacks and the Dalits moved on parallel tracks, often influencing and guiding each other. As Dalits veered towards Buddhism, many blacks moved to Islam or erected their own churches; the word Negro — a symbol of slavery — was replaced by Black. The Dalits too dumped the term Harijan “as a symbol of Gandhi's upper caste politics”. As Dalits got some benefits of reservation, black Americans too fought for affirmative action and got it in 1965. In 1970, when Dalit Panther was founded by Namdev Dhassal, it was inspired by Black Panthers.
“Because both the communities see themselves as oppressed, there has always been mutual identification and influence between the blacks and Dalits,” says Gail Omvedt, an American scholar who has spent decades in India, researching the caste system.
Although race and caste are not the same thing, in practice they are very similar — both discriminate on the basis of birth. This week, as politics went beyond race in the US, triggering a wave of hope across the world, the obvious question being asked is: “Will India get its Obama anytime in the near future?” Though Omvedt feels UP chief minister Mayawati could be the one, K P Singh, who teaches sociology at University of Washington, Seattle, is not so hopeful.
“I think the Dalit leaders in India are not capable of doing this because they believe in political slavery to their respective parties, not the community. Most Dalit leaders except Ambedkar have betrayed the Dalits. Currently, all political leaders are busy fulfilling their ambitions and achieving their personal growth, but the Dalit community as a whole is left behind unrepresented and unheard,” says Singh, who is one of the young and educated Dalits trying to link and inspire the Dalit movement with the Afro-American movement.
The inspiration has always been there. Now, thanks to Obama’s campaign and victory, there is a buzz about India’s next leader. “I don't think that the Indian elite is going to put a Dalit at the top just like that, but they will be under a moral pressure to do so, particularly when the Dalits are all fired up with Obama’s ‘yes we can’ slogan,” says Prasad.
Going by the parallel trajectory of the two movements, it shouldn’t be surprising if India, too, launches a leader like Obama. “He did not project himself as a product of the black movement, but the people, particularly the African-Americans, saw him that way. That’s important,” says Omvedt. With a wide range of leaders claiming to be true inheritors of Ambedkar’s legacy, the competition may be tough, but the Obama victory has done them a great favour: it has destroyed a myth and shattered a barrier between them and the future.
As far as the Indian elite are concerned, they seem to be more comfortable with the status quo. “When the whole world was celebrating the change in the US, our leaders, led by the Gandhi family, were busy partying at the coronation of a king in the last kingdom of South Asia,” says a Dalit leader of the Congress.
The Dalits seem to be following Malcolm X’s words that “the future belongs to those who prepare for it today”. And now, with the great hope generated by Obama, the answer may be already blowing in the wind. It may just be a hope, but it will keep the Dalits going till they find their own Obama.
Posted by klajja at 12:20 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
October 23, 2008
Stark Truths of Hinduism
An excellent article by my friend, colleague and partner in this work, Dr. Udit Raj.
Stark Truths Of Hinduism
The Hindu Right fears not conversions but equitable society
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne251008proscons.asp
by UDIT RAJ, Chairman of All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations
RIGHT-WING HINDUS never had any issue with Christians or with conversion when it came to using — and exploiting — Christian institutions. They have had no problem in availing Christian medical facilities. No abhorrence has been evinced toward convent schools, where the so-called upper castes were taught the English that got them jobs abroad and enabled them to articulate their views at global forums. That changed around 1998, when the BJP came to power. Targetting Christians became politically useful. A massive campaign was launched against Sonia Gandhi, making an issue of a person of foreign and Christian origin wielding power over a Hindu majority country. It culminated in the hatred for Christians, who are now seen as villains instead of the gentle community they had hitherto been known as.
Wisdom lies in understanding the causes which escalate the processes of hatred. So it becomes our responsibility to fathom the mystery of conversion, usually assigned as the basis for attacks on Christians. The RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP blame those said to offer inducements to convert; they also accuse the global Church of pumping money into India to influence the country’s have-nots. In such a context, the word ‘conversion’ becomes synonymous with ‘terrorism’, a connotation that could not be further from the truth. What does conversion mean except the choice of another faith or ideology? Laws against conversion are in operation in several states and, to date, not one case has been reported where a conversion was made in the greed for inducements.
What worries the Sangh Parivar is not the welfare of dalits but a possible reduction in upper-caste Hindu numbers. Their prejudice is so entrenched that they are not in a position to sense the agony of those who suffer under the caste-based system. In general, Hindu believers treat the disadvantaged as sinners reaping the fruits of a past life. Thus, a leper is to be shunned; the exploitation of dalits is justified. On the contrary, a Christian finds an opportunity for spiritual fulfillment in serving the leper and healing the sick. Before they build churches, Christians normally build schools and hospitals. Why do major Hindu religious establishments involve themselves only in collecting donations and not in performing such community services?
Let us examine the few hopes still left for Hinduism. Are dalits, tribals and members of backward groups allowed to become priests? Tall claims are made of dalits being trained to become priests or being welcomed to take up Hindu rituals. But, on the ground, the traditional situation has not changed. Though physical untouchability receded in the 20th century, the mental block remains.
The Hindu Right and the socalled upper castes see ‘saving’ Hinduism as their mission. But, in this competition with Islam, Christianity and Buddhism, the superficial brotherhood shown by right-wing Hindu organisations toward tribals and dalits does not ultimately win their hearts. Unless the problems inherent to Hinduism are addressed, conversion can never be stopped. A Christian marries his or her co-religionist; a Muslim does the same. Is that possible for Hindus across caste? Are the upper castes ready to welcome reservation for their Hindu brothers? Is their society ready for inter-dining and for inter-caste marriages? Without these conditions being fulfilled, no one on earth can stop the rejection of Hinduism by the socalled lower castes. The so-called upper castes can only stop conversion if they introspect, eradicate the evil in the caste system, and visualise themselves in a situation where they and their families are carrying human excreta on their heads. Then, they will feel the suffering of those condemned to do so for life.
(Udit Raj is a dalit activist)
Posted by klajja at 07:46 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
October 22, 2008
Three Sons Murdered, She Seeks Protection...
Another noteworthy article...
Three sons murdered, she seeks protection for the rest
by Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Express News Service
Oct 21, 2008
Lucknow, October 20: A Dalit woman from Allahabad, who has taken to arms to protect her family, visited the state capital on Monday to meet Director General of Police Vikram Singh.
Vidhyawati (45) from Allahabad, was seeking protection from the men accused of murdering her three sons. They were threatening to kill her and her family, she said.
Armed with a licensed gun, she, however, could not meet the police chief. The police took her application and assured her that it would be forwarded to Singh.
In her application, Vidhyawati named former village pradhan Manik Chand Patel, his son Doodhnath and cousin Rakesh Patel. She accused them of murdering her son and now forcing her not to give statement against them in court.
The men had been released on bail a week ago from the Allahabad District Jail.
The Deputy Inspector General, Allahabad Range, MK Prasad, said: "We provided an arms license to her after she complained about the threat to her family.
Security has been arranged for her when she visits the court for hearings."
Two of Vidhyawati's sons were allegedly poisoned in 2003 and 2004. A third was killed brutally in 2006 and his body was found on the railway tracks.
The murders took place after she staked claim on her father's land following his demise.
No FIR was lodged in this connection.
"My rivals were trying to capture my land and when I opposed it, they beat me up. Because of the threat I left the village but did not let them capture the land," said Vidhyawati, who is currently living in Soran with a physically-handicapped husband and two children.
Posted by klajja at 07:42 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
October 14, 2008
A Moratorium on Conversions: Who Decides?
In the first wave of attacks on Christians in modern India during the late 1990s, a Christian leader flinched under the pressure of Hindu extremists and called for a five year moratorium on conversions. Extremist Hindu forces have repeatedly said Christians are engaged in forced and fraudulent conversions and this is the chief reason for ‘spontaneous’ violence against Christians. The Christian leader apparently succumbed to the incessant propaganda campaign.
During the rule of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) government, the emboldened RSS maneuvered to bring various Christian denominations and associations into a dialogue that would result in a public agreement to end conversions among the downtrodden castes of India. Major Christian organisations were forced to come to the table due to political pressure and veiled threats. After every meeting with the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), the spokesperson of the RSS informed the media that the Christians had agreed to their agenda of stopping conversions in modern India.
In the midst of this theatre of the absurd, the All India Christian Council (AICC) was one of the main groups that refused to dialogue with the RSS. This aligned with the position of major civil society leaders and human rights movements in India. This decision was also taken in conjunction with Dalit-Bahujan leaders. The AICC differentiated between a genuine dialogue with non-Christian religious leaders and the sham of ‘discussions’ with Sangh Parivar outfits who have already decided, before the meeting begins, what they want the outcome to be. The AICC supports a genuine dialogue with other faiths out of our respect for our neighbours – Jesus said we must love our neighbour as ourselves – and in order to maintain civil law, decency, and peace.
Currently, the issue of a moratorium on conversions has emerged in the media in fulfillment of the propaganda of the Sangh Parivar. If the Hindu nationalist parties come to power in New Delhi, I suspect Christian organisations will be forced to come to the table again. Once again the AICC will refuse any dialogue on the issue.
Why? The answer is found in a deeper question.
Who ultimately decides the issue of conversion?
According to the India’s Constitution the freedom of religion is given to every individual Indian citizen. He or she has the freedom to believe and practice the faith he or she chooses. The freedom of speech enshrined in the Constitution gives every Indian citizen the right to propagate his faith as long as civil norms and decency are maintained.
In the context of the caste revolt in modern India, a revolution which began with Mahatma Phule, Ambedkar, and Periyar, there is another logical reason. If our country does not give the Dalits, tribals and the OBCs (Other Backward Castes) the right to choose their faith, we have effectively imposed permanent slavery of the caste system on them. It was Ambedkar who said that ‘I was born a Hindu but I will not die a Hindu’. In 1956 he fulfilled that promise with hundreds of thousands of followers. Since then, rightly or wrongly, the liberation of the oppressed castes is fatefully tied with the choice to convert out of the religion that imposes the caste system on them.
The Indian State tried to deal with caste discrimination by banning the practice of ‘untouchability’ in the Constitution. With affirmative action provisions through reservation programs, the State tried to lift up the low castes of our society.
In contrast, the Hindu fundamentalist groups led by the RSS only revived and enforced casteist religious practices that demean both the Dalits and also women. These extreme groups have done nothing to enforce the banning of the caste system within their religious systems. It was the Vice-President of the VHP who said the life of a cow is more valuable than the life of a Dalit. This was immediately after five Dalit young men were lynched to death in Jhajjar, Haryana, for skinning a dead cow.
Hindutva groups tried to revive the practice of Sati and have distributed books which contain the Law of Manu which codified the caste system in ancient India.
So who decides on a moratorium on conversions? The RSS? The media ? Those who come to the table and dialogue on this issue? Or the oppressed Dalit and low caste person in India? Dare we take away this final and most basic of human rights from the most dehumanized group of people in human civilization?
Those of us in the AICC movement – we are a coalition of many Christian groups from mainline to Pentecostal – refuse to strip this right from the Dalits or any oppressed group. And we acknowledge there are two sides to the coin. Thus, we refuse to take away this right even from those who are Christians but may choose another faith. Simply said, we believe that, without the freedom of conscience, all other freedoms become meaningless.
We unconditionally condemn all forced and fraudulent conversions and we consider the terms themselves as oxymoron. We condemn proselytizing or any effort to denigrate another faith.
The targeting of Dalits who turned to Christianity in Orissa is now out in the open. This is blatant violence against Dalits who exercised their freedom of conscience. The Dalits are not stupid in matters of conscience. Their leader Ambedkar has shown them the way. They neither need the State nor upper caste religious leaders to tell them how to make their choices.
The AICC is determined to protect and serve the Dalits. We have stated long ago that we will love and serve them unconditionally with Christ’s love whether they are Christians or not.
The Dalit Christian ethnic cleansing of Orissa must be contested by every means possible under the Indian Constitution and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The freedom of religion must be supported in every corner of our beloved country.
Posted by klajja at 07:11 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
Two Dead Priests, Two Opposite Reactions, and the Future of India
(originally published Sept 2008)
Today I mourn for my country. I am a proud Indian. We have achieved much and have much potential. But the death of a Catholic priest in Andhra Pradesh and a Hindu swami in Orissa caused a chain of events that is worth analysing. And, viewing the results, I worry about the future of our great nation.
Much of the world is watching how India cares for the flood victims in Bihar. And most of the world knows that, due to a recent agreement, India will now generate nuclear energy on a large scale. However, neither the wise use of sophisticated technology nor good disaster management are the signs of a successful democracy. A mature democracy is proven by the way people disagree with each other.
On Saturday night, August 23, 2008, Lakshmanananda Saraswati, a famous Hindu swami who dedicated his life to work with tribals, was murdered in Kandhamal District, Orissa. The killers were unknown assailants. The murder of the priest was brutal, and four other members of the ashram were shot and killed. The reaction of Christian groups, which had many public disagreements throughout the years with the swami about his accusations of fraudulent conversions, was unified. Christians condemned the violence. One of the largest networks of Protestant churches, the Evangelical Fellowship of India, said it “stands against every act of violence and terrorism.” The leader of the 16 million members of the Roman Catholic laity called for authorities to “arrest those responsible for the deaths of Saraswati and his associates.”
Exactly a week before the swami’s death, on Saturday night, August 16, 2008, a Catholic priest who dedicated his life to work in rural village, was murdered in Nizamabad District, Andhra Pradesh. The killers were unknown assailants. The murder was brutal. The body had about 20 stab wounds, had been submerged in water, and was badly disfigured with the eyes gouged out. The reaction of the Sangh Parivar – a loose-knit group of hardliner nationalist Hindu organisations – was deafening silence.
In Orissa, many of my Hindu friends peacefully mourned the death of the swami. However, the Sangh Parivar quickly rejected reports that the killers were Maoist guerillas. Without proof, they dismissed the position of the Orissa authorities and even claims of responsibility from a Naxalite leader to various Indian media. The Sangh Parivar publicly blamed Christians and called for a strike. The result was violence, including at least 35 deaths, 4,000 Christian homes destroyed, 50,000 people displaced, one nun gang raped, and over a hundred churches burned, according to Protestant and Catholic Christian leaders.
In the last week, the anti-Christian violence spread to Karnataka – home of India’s high-tech capitol, Bangalore – with 17 churches heavily damaged. Most were attacked simultaneously on Sunday, September 14, 2008. There were sporadic attacks on Christians and Christian institutions in another south Indian state, Kerala, and across north India in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand. The central government is worried about the spreading violence and finally told the Orissa and Karnataka governments on September 18, 2008, that, under Article 355 of India’s Constitution, they must stop the ‘internal disturbance’ or face federal action.
In Andhra Pradesh, the Christian community organised a rally and protests after the death of the Catholic priest. There were meetings with government officials. About 3,000 people marched through the capital of Hyderabad on Sunday evening, August 24, 2008. The candlelight march disrupted traffic and little else.
We are the world’s largest democracy. I am proud of our pluralist, multi-faith culture. In general, our religious communities exist in harmony.
But is there change in the air? Why did the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief say at the end of her visit to India in March that we are at a tipping point? Ms. Asma Jahangir’s press statement from Delhi said, “India faces a real risk of deadly communal violence erupting again unless much more is done to deter religious hatred and prevent the political exploitation of existing tensions.”
Now her prophecy has come true.
In a democracy, citizens must respect the rule of law. We can argue passionately. We can hold opposite opinions. But the war of ideas must happen without violence. When Christians commit violent acts, Christian leaders like myself condemn them. We try to nurture peace, not revenge.
We are not always successful, but what worries me is the refusal of some groups in other communities to unconditionally condemn violence. They talk of issues, especially allegations of missionaries performed ‘forced conversions’, which have made their followers angry and uncontrollable. My Christian colleagues say these arguments are simply propaganda. And the facts seem to agree. My organisation’s request under the Right to Information Act in July revealed that, in five years, there were only three complaints of forceful conversions under Gujarat’s 2003 Freedom of Religion Act. And there has never been a conviction in any of the five states that have implemented so-called anti-conversion laws.
But here is the crucial point. Anger is acceptable. Violence is not. Sadly, my friends don’t seem to see the difference.
Violence does not help end poverty. Violence does not grow our democracy. Violence deserves unconditional condemnation. Violence requires a firm response by leaders with integrity – both in the government and societal groups.
It is time for serious soul searching in an emerging super power.
Posted by klajja at 06:36 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
October 13, 2008
Pregnant Women Bear the Brunt of Orissa Violence
Here is a glimpse at the story of true human tragedy in Orissa.
Pregnant Women Bear the Brunt of Orissa Violence
Posted by klajja at 03:01 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
October 09, 2008
Article: The Sangh Parivar's plans for Orissa are on Track
Another good article to bring our awareness to the fact that all of the violence in Orissa and beyond is a coordinated, well-thought-out plan.
The Sangh Parivar's plans for Orissa are on track
by Angana Chatterji
Indian Express, 4 October 2008
It's still religion, stupid.
The riots in Kandhamal district, Orissa, in August and the ongoing violence targeted Christians in 310 villages, with 4,104 homes torched. More than 18,000 were injured and 50,000 displaced. A month after, homes continued to burn in Raikia, Tikabali, Tumudibandha, and Daringbadi. Some of these were houses of Christians residing in relief shelters, burnt by Hindu extremists as retaliation for the Christian refusal to reconvert to Hinduism. On September 28, three bodies, including of a woman, were
uncovered from Badasalunki river in Kandhamal.
The Government of Orissa systematically diminished the extent of suffering, damage, and dislocation borne by Christian communities in August-September 2008, as in December 2007, and denied the dangerous extent of communalism in Orissa. Both to the Supreme Court and the Central government, and to civil society in general, the Orissa government failed to explain how it would tackle the emergency in the state.
In the aftermath of August 2008, many Christians abandoned Kandhamal district, departing for Beherampur and Bhubaneswar in Orissa, and other states like Maharashtra, Goa, and Kerala. The police repeatedly refused to lodge FIRs that Christian communities sought to file, and made no provisions for witness protection for those willing to file charges.
Prima facie, their inaction suggested fear (of Hindutva workers) and complicity (with the Sangh Parivar) within police and district administration personnel in shielding Sangh Parivar activists. Discounting
the evidence, police did not arrest prominent Hindutva leaders complicit in the August violence, stating that such action would generate further turmoil. While in Kashmir, state forces placed leaders of the
self-determination movement under house-arrest in the largely peaceful protests of August 2008, in Jammu and Orissa, Hindutva leaders were not restrained as they called for vigilante terror.
On September 28 , Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik announced a 'peace package' responding to the demands of, in particular, Hinduised Adivasis. No reciprocal 'peace package' was announced for Christian communities. The Orissa government progressively presented the discourse on the Kandhamal
crisis as an issue between adivasis (Kondh, Kui) and Dalits (Pana)/Dalit Christians, premised on land disputes and conversions to Christianity, trying to divert focus from the leadership and responsibility of Hindutva organisations in orchestrating the violence. The government's figures dispute their allegations of escalation in Christian conversions, as Christians in Orissa numbered 8,97,861 in 2001, just 2.4 per cent of the state's population, as per the Census (2001); and the Christian population
in Kandhamal district... was recorded as 1,17,950 to 5,27,757 Hindus. Land issues in Kandhamal, as in most Adivasi and Dalit areas in Orissa, remain unresolved, fraught with the inequities of history. Yet, in Kandhamal, it is the communalisation of this issue via Hindutva's use of certain Kondh and Kui Adivasi communities, and the refusal to grant Dalit, including Pana converts to Christianity access to affirmative action, that cultivates injustices and nurtures acrimonies. These conditions enable the
Hindu right to conscript adivasis for its activities, and generate divisiveness between adivasis, Dalits, and Christians.
Funding for hate, from across India and the world, continues to incentivise the Sangh Parivar. Governmental regulations focus on Christian and Islamic groups, and neglect to monitor Hindu 'charities' that operate as sectarian organisations. A recent article by Soumitro Das in the Hindustan Times explained that, as opposed to the lack of scrutiny on funding of Hindutva-affiliated organisations, monies received by Christian organisations are monitored via stringent provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 1976. In the annual report on foreign contributions, Das clarified, "There are also no records of mass conversions." That is not the case with Sangh organisations, which have undertaken extensive coercive conversions to Hinduism in Orissa, with the intent to communalise, violating conversion laws. The following Sangh-affiliates, registered charities in the US, allocated sizeable amounts of money under 'programme services', disproportionately directed to Hindutva-affiliated groups in India. Per 2006 tax records, Ekal Vidyalaya allocated more than two million dollars to India, India Development Relief Fund (IDRF) allocated 1.6 million USD, and Sewa International USA allocated 284,800 dollars. Other organisations channelled funds for the Sangh Parivar to Orissa via groups located in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and elsewhere. All together, substantial money continues to be accumulated from upper caste/landed communities in Orissa.
The events of August and September 2008 are evidence of the Hindutva's cadre's state of preparedness. The composition of the rioters attests to the mass of the organisation, and the precision of execution points to premeditated forethought and groundwork. The Sangh Parivar's plans for Orissa are on track.
Angana Chatterji is associate professor of anthropology at California Institute of Integral Studies and author of the forthcoming book: Violent Gods: Hindu Nationalism in India's Present, Narratives from Orissa
Posted by klajja at 01:21 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
Article: Malegaon, Modasa and Mehrauli Blasts: The Hindutva Connection?
In the wake of the violence against Dalit Christians perpetrated by the Bajrang Dal and other extreme Hindu outfits, we have asked for a ban on the Bajrang Dal. Their terrorism is no less than that of extremist Islamist groups. They have been implicated in various bomb blasts and the article below outlines their activities and the sheer ineptitude of the police authorities to arrest and book terrorists of all religious hues.
Malegaon, Modasa And Mehrauli Blasts: The Hindutva Connection?
By Subhash Gatade
4 October 2008
Countercurrents.org
Saba Parveen still repents the fact that she sent her younger sister Farheen to Bhikku Chowk to buy some Pakoras. Little she could have the premonition that she would never get to see her 10 year old sister a class V student alive.
The blast at Malegaon's Bhikku Chowk, has literally shattered the family of Shaikh Liaquat Wahiuddin, Farheen's father who lives around 100 feet away from the Chowk near the Kasbapada masjid. A father of three daughters and two sons and a wife has seen all the hell broke lose soon after the bomb blast.
The couple fainted when they reached Wadia hospital to see their own daughter who had suffered severe burns in the blast turned lifeless.
The latest bomb blasts in Malegaon have seen four deaths wherein a motorcycle parked near old SIMI office which was laden with explosives exploded killing four people on the spot. It was worth noting that the people living in the vicinity of the Chowk had informed the police about this unclaimed motorcycle standing there for hours together. But the police did not bother to turn up and reached the place only after the blast which saw these deaths.
It is not difficult to imagine the palpable anger which exists among people about the callousness of the police and the insensitivity of the administration. People of this town which has a significant no of Muslim population have not forgotten the treatment meted out to them by the police and the administration when there were similar blasts in the city during their religious congregations killing 40 people in 2006. Despite enough hints about the involvement of Hindutva terror groups in the perpetration of these acts, where a torso with a fake beard was also identified, ultimately saw few Muslim youths getting booked for this crime who are still languishing in jail. A CBI enquiry which was ordered after lot of pressure claims to have reached a deadend.
In a recent meeting with Baba Siddique, the 'guardian' minister of Nasik, representatives of different Muslim organisations in Malegaon gave vent to their feelings of disgust and deep hurt over the developments. Angry community leaders asked the minister "You blame SIMI for blasts in temples, you blame SIMI for blasts in market places, you blame SIMI for blast Masjids. The latest blast has taken place just below the SIMI office. Now whom will you blame ?" (Mailtoday, Oct 3, 2008)
Hemant Karkare, chief of the Anti Terrorist Squad of Maharashtra Police, who was instrumental in nabbing the activists of Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janjagruti Samity for the bomb blasts in Thane, Vashi and few other places in Maharashtra (June 2008) and his team of officers also shied away from blaming some or the other Islamic terrorist organisation for the blast.The perpetrators of the bomb blast who had packed a splendour motorcycle with nuts, bolts, nails and ballbearings and three kilograms of explosive material, near a mosque, beside a SIMI office and the time chosen by them - on the eve of Eid - has definitely put local police and ATS groping in the dark.
But according to an investigative report filed by Mailtoday (1 October 2008) : "Police, however, are sure of one thing - that the blasts in Malegaon and Modasa in Gujarat were a coordinated effort, as both occured at around 9.30 p.m. in Muslim dominated areas.Karkare felt that the Gujarat and the Malegaon blasts were similar in nature also."
In fact any close watcher of the bomb blasts in the country cannot miss the fact that bikes have been a favourite instrument of the Bajrang Dal to attack Muslims. A narcotest of those involved in Nanded bomb blasts (April 2006) which saw deaths of two Bajrang Dal activists had clearly revealed that 'mysterious blasts' in Parbhani in 2003 and Jalna (2004) which involved perpetrators on bikes throwing bombs at the congregation and fleeing were actually the handiwork of a terror module of the Bajrang Dal itself.
The report in Mailtoday further adds "This is similar to the blast in Mehrauli market in New Delhi blast on Saturday and also some other cases where bombs were placed on bikes."
Of course Mailtoday is not alone in pointing fingers at Hindu terror groups for these bomb blasts, a detailed writeup in Indian Express ( Hindu Extremist Groups on Radar In Malegaon Probe, Sagnik Chowdhury, 1 October 2008) reiterates the line of thinking of the ATS officials as far as the particular blast is concerned. " A day after the Maharashtra police said it could not rule out the possibility of Hindu extremist hand in Monday's blast in Malegaon, investigators are revisiting the crude bombs that were planted in auditoriums on the outskirts of Mumbai earlier this year." The ATS is planning to question the activists of Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, Sanatan Sanstha and other stray Hindu extremist organisations for their possible involvement in the act.The 1020 page chargesheet filed by the ATS in September against the members of these organisations for their terrorist acts is an added reminder for it to pursue the case in a balanced manner.
A deeper analysis of terror strikes since 2006 also reveal that there are at least five such terror strikes which targeted minorities and their religious places and they still remain unresolved. A report filed by Aman Sharma (Mailtoday, October 3, 2008) provides details of these blasts and the status of investigations. Jama Masjid blast (14 injured, April 2006 - Friday) where low intensity, crude bombs were placed in a polythene bag is still pending with Delhi police, no outfit has been named. Malegaon (40 killed, September 8, 2006 - Friday) which saw four bombs outside mosques on Shab-e-Barat where RDX-ammonium nitrate bombs in boxes on bicycles was used, still remains unresolved. The investigation in Samjhuta express blasts (66 killed, Feb 19, 2007) where six bombs were planted inside Indo-Pak Samjhauta Express has also not shown any progress and neither any organisation has been named. The case of Mecca Masjid blasts (11 killed, May 18, 2007 -Friday) where two bombs were planted inside Mecca Masjid in boxes, is also pending with CBI. The enquiry into Ajmer Sharif bomb blasts (3 killed, October 11, 2007 - Friday) where two bombs in tiffin boxes wee used and where ammonium nitrate bombs were triggered by mobile phone has also not made much headway. The case at present pending with Rajasthan police has also not named any organisation.
Looking at the fact that communal common sense dominates the functioning of the police and the media in our country it is difficult to predict what will happen next. The investigations into the recent Kanpur blast (24 August 2008) which saw deaths of two RSS activists, Rajiv Mishra and Bhupendra Chopra, while making ammonium nitrate bombs, is an example worth studying. While the police took two of their colleagues for narcoanalysis, it did not even bother to question their alleged mentors -one of whom happened to be a Professor in IIT with RSS background.
Posted by klajja at 01:16 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
September 03, 2008
Article: Communal Violence is Sequel to Dalit Assertion
Check out this article out of Hyderabad today which shows how Dalit empowerment may be the true impetus behind increased communal violence in places like Orissa.
Communal Violence is Sequel to Dalit Assertion
Posted by klajja at 12:56 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
August 31, 2008
Destroying a Dream
The following is a nice summary of challenges for Dalits in both lower and higher education. It's a great article by a famous Western scholar who has become an Indian citizen.
Destroying a dream
By Gail Omvedt
The Week, Aug. 17, 2008
Destroying a Dream
Atrocities are events that happen in villages. We recoil at scenes of the brutal slaughter of a young couple breaking caste rules to seek love; naked and beaten bodies of a family which had had the gall to cultivate land that dominant caste villagers wanted; police kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach until she has a miscarriage.
Or we may think of the atrocities of daily life: low-paid and scorned labour, having to endure the humiliation of separate tea cups in hotels and lack of equal access to water of the village well, the temple, street or public square where Dalits are not welcome.
We do not think of atrocities as events that happen in schools. Education, after all, has been the dream of so many Dalit and non-Dalit youth from the supposedly 'superior' and the supposedly 'low' castes. Universities, research institutes and colleges are supposed to be places for 'free play of the mind', and where thinking is taught.
Schools are supposed to be training grounds for the India of tomorrow, free from the slime and degradation of the past. Every social reformer and revolutionary has focused on education; the reservation of 'seats' in educational institutions has been a central hope for the destruction of caste differences.
Yet, when a Dalit boy or girl steps into an educational institution, it may be their first step of confronting a humiliation unknown outside of their kin and caste circles. Schoolteachers may scorn them, treating them as unable to 'speak right' or think clearly, often expecting them to do the menial tasks, such as cleaning toilets ("After all, this is YOUR work.") and beating them brutally when they don't-an experience of Dalit girls in a village near Coimbatore.
College teachers may treat them as 'reserved' students, as not really capable of being taught, sometimes failing them, sometimes passing them without giving any encouragement or paying attention to their work. (This can happen even in top institutions; it has been reported, for instance, by JNU students that professors would do the latter.) Fellow students can reveal with every word the inherited ways of thinking; there are many examples of 'caste' students refusing noon meals if cooked by Dalit teachers.
In 2007, two research scholars of IISc-Bangalore, committed suicide. For V. Ajay Shree Chandra, a Dalit boy, it was discrimination, rejection of his work and verbal abuse that led him to end his life. For R. Chaitra, an OBC girl, it was pressure from family to marry against her wishes. In Kerala, Rajani S. Anand, a Dalit student of engineering, committed suicide as she could not get a loan to fund her studies. Dalit students at AIIMS have been abused.
Various special schemes for Dalit and Adivasi students often exist only on paper. For example, a Navodaya model school with 163 Dalit students from all over Karnataka, located near a reserve forest in Dakshina Kannada district, has no science laboratory, science teacher or sports ground, and all teachers are on contract (which means they do not benefit from government salaries and are insecure and poorly paid).
The result is backwardness in education. Dalit literacy remains significantly lower than the average and drop-out rates have gone up. As per a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General released on August 3, 2008, this rate increased in 2003-04 from 2001-02 in several states. Literacy rates for SCs and STs were 55 per cent and 47 per cent, according to the 2001 Census, compared with the national average of 65 per cent.
Education has been the hope of free India and the dream of social revolutionaries who hoped to free their people from the menial and scorned work of the past. But the road to education is not a free, four-lane highway. For the Dalits, it is full of potholes, speedbreakers and roadblocks.
Omvedt is fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.
Posted by klajja at 07:27 PM in Articles | Comments (0)
July 15, 2008
Caste Discrimination in IIT Delhi
Earlier in my blog I pointed out cases of discrimination against Dalit students in higher learning. Here is a current case researched and written by Anoop Kumar. When will this tyranny end?
*******
IITs: Doing Manu Proud – II[1]
Caste Discrimination in IIT Delhi
By Anoop Kumar
(On behalf of Insight & National Dalit Students’ Forum)
[anoopkheri@gmail.com]
“A caste-hindu by his very make up is incapable of showing any consideration to an untouchable candidate. He is a man with strong sympathies and strong antipathies”
- Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (The Untouchables and the Pax Britannica)
I. Termination of Dalit students
In June, 2008, 12 Dalit students (11 SC & 1 ST) [2] were terminated by the IIT Delhi administration citing their ‘low academic performance’ as the reason. 11 students are from 1st and 2nd year and 1 from the final year. After receiving the termination letter, some of these Dalit students complained to the National Commission for the Scheduled Castes about being victimised by the IIT administration due to their caste background.
They alleged that IIT faculty members are highly prejudiced against students coming through reservation provision and are very hostile to them. They complained of being graded poorly in some courses despite performing well. The SC Commission summoned the Director of IIT Delhi and asked him to investigate into the allegations made by the Dalit students and also to review their termination. IIT administration, then, formed a 4-member Committee (consisting of present and past IIT faculty members) that had its hearing on 23rd and 24th May, 2008.
On 1st July, the IIT administration submitted a 1-page report to the SC Commission stating that it has decided to revoke the expulsion of 3 students (2 SC and 1 Muslim) by showing leniency, as they were short of very less credits. The report further stated that ‘no case of caste discrimination was brought out by the students in their meeting with the Review Committee’.
This is a blatant lie on the part of the IIT Review Committee, as when the Dalit students tried to raise the issue of caste discrimination, the members of the Committee refused to listen to them. The members only inquired about their academic performances and refused to take up questions related to caste discrimination.
The last paragraph of the 1-page report submitted to the SC Commission by IIT Delhi reiterated that ‘IIT Delhi is very sensitive to the special needs of SC/ST students and faculty members spare no efforts in helping them, and indeed all weak students, to come up to our higher academic standards. It is only when we feel that a student is unable to cope up with studies, and would not be able to complete the degree requirements in the maximum allowed period of six years, that we terminate the registration so that the student can avoid further wastage of time and make an alternative education plan for himself.’ (emphasis added)
II. IITs and SC/ST Students
Every year, IITs select students through its Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) offering around 5500 seats for its various undergraduate (B. Tech and Integrated M. Tech) courses. Studies suggest that close to half the seats reserved for SCs and STs remain vacant and that of those admitted, a significant proportion, perhaps up to 25 percent, is obliged to drop out. Even though the IITs reserve 15 % of the seats for SCs and 7.5 % for STs, they are often unable to fill even half of this quota[3].
Now, if we do some simple calculation, we can very easily conclude that the SC/ST community looses about 773 IIT undergraduate seats out of the total allotted 1237 seats every year. That amounts to a massive loss of 62 % of the total allotted seats due to both, unfilled seats at the time of admission and subsequent drop outs.
Recently, a news paper article mentioned, taking help from the Right to Information Act, that “In IIT Bombay, 21 SC/ST students were asked to terminate their undergraduate B.Tech course in 2006-07, 20 SC/ST students in 2005-06 and 19 students in the prior year. The yearly average for SC/ST students’ termination in IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur is 11 and 8 respectively.”[4]
Except IIT Guwahati (founded in 1994) and IIT Roorkee (included as IIT in 2001), all the 5 other IITs are at least 45 years old. I would like my readers to calculate the total number of losses suffered by the SC/ ST community in all these years and critically analyse the impact of such losses for the community, that has been suffering the inhuman exclusion in every sphere of life and whose only life line has been the Constitutional provision of Reservation in education and in government jobs.
Hence, it becomes very important for all of us to ponder over two questions that emerge out:
Why even today, about half of the seats for SC/ST students remain unfilled in the IITs?
Why is there such a high drop out rate of SC/ST students in IITs?
To many, the obvious answer to both the questions is that SC/ST students are ‘weak in studies’. It means that on an average, SC/ST students cannot compete with general category students, both in the entrance exam as well as during his/her stay at IIT.
Before probing into the ‘weakness’ of SC/ST students, I would like to point out that -
The cut-off marks at IIT entrance exam as well as passing marks in particular subjects in IITs are not fixed.
The cut-off marks for SC/ST students in IIT entrance exams, in any year, is normally 10 % less than the general category cut-off in that year.
The IITs follow relative grading in course work. There is no fixed minimum passing marks. Even if any IIT student has scored 60 % in any particular subject, there are chances that he/she might be declared failed, if the average score of other students is slightly higher. Or he/she might not be failed. Since there is no fixed passing marks, to pass students who have scored less than average becomes the prerogative of individual faculty members.
I came to know about the termination of Dalit students from IIT Delhi in the second week of June. While interacting with these students and listening to their stories, I became aware of how the IIT administration deals with Dalit students. To have a better understanding, I decided to interact with more Dalit students from IIT Delhi as well as some of the ex-students. The present report is based on my interactions with them.
III. The manufacturing of ‘weak’ students and the construction of ‘merit’ in IITs
While interacting with IIT Delhi’s terminated Dalit students, three questions came to my mind.
Were these students ‘weak’ in studies and were not able to cope up with the rigorous studies in IIT Delhi?
Or/ and did they just not apply themselves and study hard?
Or were there other factors involved that might be beyond these students?
The truth that emerges out is shocking, to say the least. Dalit students who are admitted in IITs are marked as ‘weak’ and ‘non-meritorious’ from the very beginning and their stay in IITs are made as painful as possible. Such behaviour has been institutionalised and has been perfected into a fine art by many faculty members.
According to the IIT administration, all SC/ST students entering into the IITs are ‘weak’, as they come through Reservations. They use each and every opportunity, both inside as well as outside the classes, to make sure that these students are kept aware of this fact that ‘all general category students are meritorious whereas SC/ST students don’t deserve’ to be in IIT’.
However, the truth is that most of the Dalit students entering into the IITs are often toppers of their respective schools. They are, mostly, second generation literate and hail from lower-middle class, rural or semi-urban backgrounds with non-English medium schooling. In comparison, the general category students are invariably from upper-middle class, urban, upper-caste, English medium backgrounds. Not only are there marked differences in the backgrounds of the students from these two categories but also their routes to IIT differ immensely. And I would like to argue that this is where the ‘merit’ is constructed.
‘Merit’ via coaching centres
A recent study conducted by ASSOCHAM reveals that private coaching centres that train students for entrance exams of the IIT and other prestigious engineering colleges ‘mint Rs.100 billion ($2.30 billion) a year - an amount that can fund 30 to 40 new IITs’[5]. In fact the city of Kota in Rajasthan, which boasts of the best coaching centres in India, is flocked by aspiring IIT candidates from all over the country. One particular coaching centre in Kota, in fact, claims that 1 out of every 4 IITians is their ‘product’.
As we all know, studying in these coaching centres is not cheap at all. On an average, a student spends more than Rs. 1 lakh for an 8-month coaching during his/her preparation for IIT entrance exam. As a response to the impact of the coaching industry and the undue advantage that it gives to their students, IIT has recently made changes in their admission procedure by fixing the number of attempts a student can take and have also made changes in the examination pattern. However, these cosmetic changes have not been able to restrict the number of students flocking to the coaching centres.
Now, the question is who are those students who flock to these coaching centres to crack the tough IIT entrance exams? The answer is not that difficult if one interacts with IIT students, from both general category and SC/ST category.
The majority of Dalit students have cleared the IIT JEE exam through self-study or by taking private tuitions, as they were not in a position to pay huge fees for these centres. In comparison, it is very rare to find a general category student who had not studied in one or the other big coaching centres. Due to this, the general category students are much better equipped for IIT JEE exams and this reflects in the merit list of the general category which has higher cut-off marks. Still, some of the SC/ST candidates are able to score higher than that cut-off and reach to the general category list. The lower cut-off marks for SC/ST students thus becomes the first indicator that points towards the notion that ‘SC/ST students are weak’.
There is not even a single voice that opposes the coaching centres and the undue advantage they provide to the rich, urban, upper-caste students in comparison with those who, without money, are left to do self- preparation.
The IIT JEE exam is one of the toughest exams. Why? ‘To attract the best minds in India’ is the stock reply. If this is so, then what are these coaching centres with Rs.100 billion annual turnovers doing? They are, in fact, manufacturing ‘best minds’ from those who have deep pockets in this country and are aiding in the unequal competition between students from different backgrounds. However, no body acknowledges this fact, as these coaching centres are boon for ‘upper’ caste families, since they help them in their claim of being ‘meritorious’.
English language as another marker of ‘Merit’
Majority of the Dalit students entering into IITs are from non-English medium schools, whereas the medium of instruction in IITs is English. Once admitted in IIT, these students find it very difficult to follow the classes since they are taught in English, which results in their low performance in initial years, as compared to other students.
Since all the SC/ST students, on being admitted in IITs, are already marked as ‘weak’, the initial low performance of non-English medium Dalit students feeds into this stereotyping and they easily become the poster boys of ‘quota students’ in the highly prejudiced IIT campus. A few Dalit students who are from relatively better backgrounds (read English medium) are able to escape such ignominy, getting an opportunity to pass off as a general category student, leaving behind these hapless students to suffer the punishment of being ‘quota’ students.
Instead of acknowledging the difference in background and the problem of medium of instruction, the IIT faculty members also, due to their casteist prejudices, quickly brand these students as ‘undeserving’, ‘not up to the mark’ and ‘forced into IIT through reservation’. Rather than supporting students to cope up with English and gradually come at par with the other students, they are hostile or at best indifferent to their plight.
On the pretext of their low performance in IIT, many faculty members humiliate and demoralise these Dalit students, both inside and outside the classes, by making remarks on their academic capabilities implying, “since you don’t deserve to be here, now you suffer”.
It is their way of retaliating to the reservation provisions and since they cannot stop these students from entering into IITs, they try to punish them for that ‘crime’ through such behaviour. To counter reservation, there is a strong urge to prove that Dalit students are weak and what better way to do it than targeting those who are already little handicapped in the IIT environment!
The rigorous IIT schedule from the day one does not make things easier for these Dalit students either. By the time they are in a position to cope up with the IIT culture and rigour, they are already under heavy backlog of many courses and find themselves to be on the verge of being terminated due to ‘low academic performance’. Many of them drop out by the end of their 1st and 2nd year and those who some how pass, barely manage to get their degree in 4 years. Most of them take another 1-2 years to get their B. Tech degree, their stay being further marked by demoralisation, stigma and huge alienation.
More than 80 % of the children in India, those who are fortunate enough to pass 10th std., do their schooling in Hindi or other regional languages as their medium of instruction. Yet IITs, that claim to be the institutes of ‘national’ importance and teach in English, have failed to develop a proper mechanism to counter the problems faced by these students once admitted in IITs. Is it due to the incompetency of the IITs or are they simply not bothered, as they believe that the ‘best minds fit for IITs’ can only be found in urban, English-educated, upper caste students? I believe both reasons to be true; besides, it gives them a big stick to beat reserve category students with.
Engineering colleges in India have copied their entire syllabi from the knowledge produced in the west. The faculty members teach from the western texts and techniques, which they had learnt from there in the 1960-70s. The academic research and development of syllabi is in such a sorry state in this country that there is hardly any innovation in teaching, both in texts and techniques. During interaction, IIT students tell you how these professors teach in the class, through their old notes (known as kharra in Hindi slang), promoting only rote learning and discouraging any discussions in the class.
Apart from their incompetency, IIT faculty members are also not interested in developing any mechanism to resolve the question of language, as it does not affect their caste and class interest. IITs have turned themselves completely into institutions for providing lucrative jobs both in India and abroad for the kith and kin of the urban, English-speaking, upper caste, middle class and in the process completely sidelining their basic objectives of providing scientists and technologists to the country. It also suits multinationals very well, as they need English-speaking labourers. Also, the knowledge of English gives them the sense of superiority vis-à-vis the lower caste, which they don’t want to lose at any cost. Like Sanskrit earlier, now English has become the marker of their ‘merit’ and ‘knowledge’.
If IITs remained true to their real objectives of promoting research and development in sciences and technology for the country, it could never have afforded to create an environment that promotes rote learning and found the ‘best brains’ in a very small segment of the country, branding others as ‘merit-less’ and ‘incompetent’.
IV. Institutional Mechanisms
If the Dalit students admitted in IITs through JEE are so ‘weak’ that it results in such a high drop-out rate, my question is, has the IIT administration devised any mechanism to support these students to come at par with others? Let us examine -
a. Orientation Programme
There is no such programme for SC/ST students at any point of their stay in IIT, leave alone at the time of their admission. Such programmes, in the beginning, would help Dalit students immensely and provide them the confidence in IIT administration. There are hundreds of studies available in many parts of the world that prove the efficacy of such programmes for those who face marginalisation in the society.
b. Remedial Classes for English language and proficiency
In the first semester, IIT Delhi offers one course in English language to all those coming from non-English backgrounds. It is of 3 credits and the faculty teaches XII std. level English grammar. It usually has 1-2 classes per week. Thus, IIT expects these students to become proficient in English by attending 18-20 classes which are held in one semester. The interviews with students revealed the non-seriousness of such efforts. Every body said that this course is absolutely ineffective, as the teacher concentrates only on the English Grammar, which anyways they have studied in the schools. The students also allege that even this is not taught seriously and students just try to pass in this course in order to get the very valuable 3 credits. Some of the students even fail in this course and have to repeat the course next year.
The main problems faced by the freshers in IIT are that they are unable to catch the accent of most of the professors and also find it difficult to comprehend the text books in English. So, what is important here is the ‘language’ of science and not English grammar per se and its remedy is not just one course in English grammar.
The remedy lies in individual faculty members identifying students with such a problem and supporting them by giving some extra time and promoting an atmosphere where the students feel confident to interact with them. However, for such an environment, it is important not to treat all such students as ‘weak’ and victimise them due to their poor English. Given the level of students-teachers interaction (it is one sided), insincerity and incompetency of IIT faculty members, asking for this is really a very tall order.
c. SC/ST Cell or Equal Opportunity Office
Every university and college in the country has an SC/ST cell to monitor the implementation of reservation as well as to redress the grievances of the SC/ST students. But IIT Delhi has probably never heard of it or they have given themselves the clean chit of being a caste discrimination-free campus! Hence, the IITs have no such mechanism and the SC/ST students have no space where they can share and interact with the administration on their specific problems. Such a cell also works as a grievance redressal mechanism against caste-based abuses and discrimination suffered by Dalit students. Given the tendency of IIT faculty members to hurl casteist abuses and indulgence in discriminatory grading, such mechanisms are absolutely necessary.
d. SC/ST Course Adviser
According to the IIT prospectus (page 17), “A number of measures exist for helping students belonging to SC and ST categories. A senior faculty member is appointed as adviser to SC/ST students for advising them on academic and non-academic matters.”
However, the truth is that not even a single Dalit student was able to tell the name of the Professor who is supposed to look after the problems of SC/ST students. Nobody was even aware of this provision and had never come across any information or notice regarding it.
e. Standing Review Committee (SRC)
This Committee composes of a number of faculty members including the Dean for under-graduate students and is supposed to identify students, whose performance is not up to the mark starting from the end of the 1st semester and work with him/her to solve those problems. However, if one interacts with the students, one will hear many horrifying stories of how in SRC, instead of patiently dealing with the student’s problems, the members literally rag the students and create an atmosphere where the Dalit students feel like criminals in front of police officials. Getting one’s name in the SRC becomes another marker of being a ‘weak’ student. The list is sent to the faculty members and that information is used by many faculty members to humiliate Dalit students in the SRC list, as then it is ‘officially proved’ that these students are ‘undeserving’ and ‘not fit for the IITs’.
f. Student Counselling Service
IIT Delhi runs a Student Counselling Service under the aegis of Board for Student Welfare, for ‘assisting students in sorting out their difficulties and dilemmas in an environment where they can talk freely and in confidence about any matter which is troubling them.’ The staff includes psychologists, a psychiatric, and is also drawn from faculty and student volunteers.
Many of the IIT faculty members believe this Counselling service to be the panacea for all ills. So, if a student is facing difficulties in a course, the professor often suggests, “to visit the counsellor and get your mind checked”. During my interaction, the Dalit students gave mixed reaction on the efficacy of the counselling services. Many of them are of the opinion that they visit counsellor for the problems that is purely academic and hope that these are conveyed to the concerned faculty members but all of them were unanimous in its ineffectiveness in dealing with the caste problem. More over, the counsellor also treats them as ‘weak’ students, as one incident narrated by an ex-student shows. In 2002, when this student went to the Counsellor with his problems, he was categorically told that he was having such problems as he was a reserved category candidate and would never able to cope up with the IIT atmosphere.
g. SC/ST faculty members
Since IITs are ‘institutes of national importance’, there is no provision of reservation in faculty recruitment. While interacting with the Dalit students, none of them were able to name even a single professor from these two categories. However, later we were able to identify one Dalit professor, who retired 6 years back. It is shocking to know that in all these years following the inception of IIT (more than 45 years), it has failed to recruit faculty members from marginalised backgrounds. This itself is a testimony of the type of exclusion practised by the IITs.
h. Support System
Dalit students not only lack institutional mechanisms but they themselves also cannot help each other, as IIT Delhi has banned the formation of any students’ groups in the campus, other than those that are run by the administration (for extra-curricular activities). In the past, some of the students have tried to organise themselves informally but were not successful, as the administration started harassing them. Also, it was difficult to interact with all the SC/ST students clandestinely, due to the difficulty in identifying students from other departments.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, on which IITs are said to have been modelled, have a plethora of recognised student bodies of different minorities (for example, a very strong Black Students’ Union) and run various programmes that provide the much needed space for these students to interact with each other, which helps them in articulating their problems and negotiating with the administration.
However, IITs believe that there are only two types of students – General Category and ‘weak’ students that don’t deserve to be in IIT. Hence, they copied every thing from MIT but forgot to replicate the democratic institutional spaces provided by MIT for students from different backgrounds.
i. Study on problems faced by SC/ST students
It is interesting to note that IITs have not carried even a single systematic study of problems faced by the Dalit students. One look at the website of MIT will tell you about the number of studies conducted on the problems faced by women and African Americans and the steps taken by MIT to solve those problems. However, IITs here are not at all interested in doing such a study and making efforts to solve the problems of Dalit students, as they believe that all SC/ST students are born inferior.
V. Experiences of Dalit Students in IIT Delhi
During the course of my interaction, I interviewed 20 Dalit students from IIT Delhi, where they shared their experiences of the campus. But I have included only a few narratives in this report and have not mentioned their names to prevent their identification. There are many narratives which I have not included where I felt that the nature of the incidents might betray the student’s identity, even if I did not reveal their names. Needless to say, these incidents were much more overt in nature.
Student No. 1 (Final Year B. Tech) -
Professors in IIT are undoubtedly better from rest of the country, but there are some who need to be corrected. They ask the students’ caste and category when they perform poorly. They believe that all SC/ST students are weak and all weak students are SC/ST. In my first semester, the Physics professor was taking my viva and I was not able to answer, on which she became very annoyed and asked me, “Are you from quota?” I said, “No.” Then she explained, “Quota means SC/ST.” I again answered, “No.”
She was asking the same question to the general category students, if they were not able to answer in the viva. What is this mentality of the professor? Is it correct for professors to ask the category if one is not able to answer? Throughout her classes, I had the fear that if she came to know my category, she would do something wrong in my grading. So, I was quite nervous and never went to her for any help or to clarify my doubts. I don’t understand why professors create these kinds of situations.
Student No. 2 (IInd Year, B. Tech) -
I was doing a course in the Bio-Tech department. Due to my illness, I didn’t appear for one of the exams in that course. There is a rule that if the student has not appeared in examination due to medical reason, he/she is allowed to sit for the re-exam, after submitting the medical certificate. When I asked for my re-examination, the professor immediately replied, “Reservation lekar IIT mein aa jate ho aur exam bhi nahi dete.” (You come through reservations in IIT and then don’t even sit for exams).
I could not say anything because here students don’t speak anything before the professors, as our fate lies ultimately in their hands. They may fail us if they wish. However, I kept on requesting for re-examination. Later, he agreed but I was failed in that exam. One more time I had gone to the same professor to clarify something related to my term paper. He immediately said, “No, I don’t know anything”. I never went back to him again then. Due to such behaviour from IIT faculties, we are forced to feel like a criminal in front of the police.
Student No. 3 (IInd Year, B. Tech) -
Last year, I was attending a course and by then, I was already in the SRC list. This list is sent to the concerned faculties. When my professor got the list, she told me, “SC/ST students are very poor and if I ask something from you, I don’t think you will be able to answer that”. When I protested on her statement, she said, “Oh! so you want to fight with me!”
After that she became very hostile to me. Whenever I went for some clarification, she used to get angry and rebuke me for not being able to understand ‘simple English’ and always made very discouraging comments like, “Are you always sleeping in the class? Why did you join IIT if you don’t know English?”
However, unlike other students, I persisted in meeting her, as I needed continued support. One day, she got very angry and told me, “I think you are mad. You should get medical check-up. Go and visit the counsellor”. Then I realized that it was getting tough to cope up with her. I called my father and then both of us went and met the professor. She was very rude to both of us and told my father that there was something wrong with me and I must consult a doctor. My father tried to talk to her but in vain. The professor did not budge from her point that I am mad. At the end, I failed in the subject. I paid the price of asserting myself and asking guidance from the professor.
Student No. 4 (Final Year, B. Tech) -
In one of the classes of Energy Studies, in 2006, the professor started saying that reservation is unjust, as undeserving students from reserved category are selected while upper caste students, who are meritorious are left out and indulge in theft and robbery. All the students listened to him quietly but I wonder what would have been the response of the professor if any SC/ST students had argued with him in the class.
Student No. 5 (IIIrd Year, B. Tech) -
In the last semester, I was giving viva exam for Energy Conversion lab. When I was not able to answer the question, one of the professors asked my lab partner whether I was from reserved category. He replied “yes”. The professor uttered “Ohh!” and did not ask any further questions from me.
Student No. 6 (IIIrd Year, B. Tech) -
I want to narrate one of my experiences of SRC (Standing Review Committee) meeting which is supposed to monitor the student’s performance but actually does nothing. The objectives remain on paper only. It is never helpful in sorting out student’s problem or to improve his performance. No one wants to hear our problems. Only your past examination marks are asked and then you are grilled / ragged for that and that is why most of the students don’t want to go to its meetings.
Before the SRC meeting, we are supposed to fill a form stating our problems. In the meeting, one of the professors sits with all the records, and briefs other faculty members about the concerned student. In one such meeting, I was also called. I filled up the form where I mentioned all my problems. When I went inside, one professor showed my records to the two neighbouring professors and said in a hushed tone, “SC student”. Then one of the professors said, “Ok, let him go”. No body asked anything about my problems. I felt it was utter waste to attend the SRC meetings. I didn’t understand the purpose of filling up the form if they did not ask anything.
Student No. 7 (IIIrd Year, B. Tech)
Here in IIT, we cannot form any group. Pravin Togadia and Ashok Singhal can come and speak in the IIT hostel (they came in the tenure of the previous IIT Director) but the students cannot organise Dr. Ambedkar Jayanti in the campus. Since the last 2-3 years, the SC/ST Employees Association is organising Dr. Ambedkar Jayanti, as the administration has not been able to harm them but 3-4 years back, when some senior Dalit students had tried to organise that, they faced stiff resistance from the IIT administration and were categorically asked the rationale for celebrating Dr. Ambedkar’s birthday in IIT campus.
If any Dalit student wants to organise an orientation programme for SC/ST freshers, he is harassed by the faculty members like anything. It happened with one of our seniors. Since IIT does not organise any such programme, he tried to contact the IIT administration for organising this. Immediately, a letter was sent to his home saying that, “your son is involved in politics”. Later, he was harassed by the faculty members also.
One funny incident that I want to share will reflect the prejudices and ignorance of IIT faculties. A few years back, on Dr. Ambedkar Jayanti, the SC/ST Employees Association invited IIT Director as the chief guest. When asked to speak, he just said one sentence, “In IIT, there is no caste discrimination” and went back to his seat!
VI. Interview with ex-students of IIT Delhi
“Do you think all of us should carry audio recorders while attending classes?”
- Shibu (name changed), a Tribal ex-student of IIT Delhi, who teaches in one of the state engineering colleges, shares his experiences in a telephonic interview.
Q. Sir, some SC/ST students of IIT Delhi have raised the question of caste discrimination. What is your opinion? What has been your experience in IITDelhi?
A. There is no doubt that casteism prevails in the campus very much. The faculty members strongly believe that all SC/ST students are weak and that is why they treat them as inferior. We keep hearing their comments in the class about how weak we are. If we don’t do well in our exam, they blame it on our being from SC/ST category. They will never encourage you in your studies. Once I asked my professor to allow me to work in certain project under him. He flatly refused saying that this project was beyond my capabilities and I could not manage such a project. It was very heart breaking for me.
One reason why they are able to comment on us without any fear is the absence of SC/ST faculty members. There are no single faculty members from these two categories and that is why Dalit students face so many problems. There is no body to check them. Students cannot confront, as their entire career depends on these teachers. They are the ones who will give you marks.
Q. So, is there no way in which Dalit students can protest against such comments?
A. Dalit students cannot form any group here and general category students also maintain a very safe distance from them. Most of them try to avoid the Dalit students, as they also suffer from the same disease and believe that they are superior. I have seen very minimum level of interaction between the two groups. A few Dalit students who are from relatively well-off positions might be able to penetrate in their groups but otherwise Dalit students suffer huge alienation both in the class and hostel. That is why, he has no other choice than tolerate silently all the adverse comments. There are not many cases of physical violence in IIT against the Dalit students but in all other state and regional engineering colleges, this is a huge problem. The majority of cases of physical violence have been against Dalit students.
Q. Is there no mechanism for redressal relating to caste abuses and prejudices in IIT like the SC/ST Cell or Equal Opportunity Office?
A. No, there is nothing of this sort. At least I am not aware of that. May be officially they might have some but none of us were aware of any such mechanism during my stay in IIT Delhi. There is so much mental harassment of Dalit students. How are you going to prove that? There is no evidence. How will you prove that the teachers made some bad comments about SC/ST and are hostile? Do you think all of us should carry audio recorders while attending classes? I was always asked to answer tough questions in the class by some faculty members. I knew I was targeted being the only reserved category student. But they could very easily say that by asking questions regularly they are in fact trying to persuade me to work much harder. Such a logic can be very convenient for them. But I can see the real intentions in their eyes. They want to humiliate me but I cannot prove it. It is so subtle. They have turned caste discrimination into a fine art and have mastered it very well. I don’t think many SC/ST students can escape from this. You have to suffer.
Q. I have heard that there is a provision of a separate course advisor for SC/ST students, who is supposed to advise and support Dalit students in their studies? What was your experience with him?
A. I was completely unaware of such a course advisor during my stay.
Q. What about the campus placement process?
A. Not many Dalit students get proper placement from the campus. There are many instances where, in the whole batch, only SC/ST students are left without jobs. We are not aware how this elimination process during placements works but the fact remains that private sector companies don’t hire Dalit students. In our placement CVs, our category is mentioned by the institute. Since private companies do not give any reservation, then what is the need of mentioning our category? And moreover, many good companies don’t allow students with CGPA less than 6.75 to sit for their placement exams and interviews and not many Dalits have such CGPA. They, by then, have been so much demoralized by the whole environment that they are concerned only about getting their degrees. Even in those companies where there is no such CGPA criterion, the chances of getting a job are very less for Dalit students. They are forced to only think of less lucrative government jobs like the Public Sector Units.
Q. What is your experience while teaching in one of the reputed state engineering college?
A. The situation remains the same even if an SC/ST becomes a faculty. They try to harass you here also. Here also, they try every possible means to force you out of the institute. Once you join, they will immediately start giving extra works- both teaching and non-teaching. They will speak very softly but you will immediately get tough courses to teach. Some of them might even provoke students against you. Normally, Dalit faculty members are very student-friendly, as they genuinely want to support students, being aware of the problems faced by them. However, most of the time, this gesture becomes counter- productive, as students start believing that you are a weak person and start taking you for granted. In my institute, there are only two more Dalit faculty members and I sometimes listen to their harrowing experiences and wonder how they managed to stay in that institute for so long.
“I knew I was stigmatized for ever”
- Rakesh Kumar, a Dalit ex student of IIT Delhi narrates his experience
I completed my B. Tech Course from IIT Delhi in 2003. When I was in my first year, I was attending the Chemistry class (one of the first few classes) and some of the students after giving their attendance, tried to escape from the class through the back door. One of the students (with surname Srivastava) was caught. The professor got very angry and started scolding him and asked the names of other students who had run away. There were 5-6 students. One of them had surname ‘Meena’, which is a Tribal surname. As soon as the professor heard his name, he became angry all the more and started making derogatory comments like ‘I know how they come here’, ‘these SC/ST students don’t deserve to come to IIT’ and ‘they are ruining the IIT atmosphere’. He spoke for more than 15 minutes giving a ‘discourse’ on how ‘un-teachable’ SC/ST students were. I was sitting in the class listening to him.
Now when I look back and reflect about my four years of stay in IIT, I can understand how that one particular incident had marked my student life there.
How could I trust the IIT professors when they had already passed the judgment on me? I could not draw courage to reveal my caste identity to my friends in IIT. I knew I was stigmatized for ever. Since I knew English, I tried to pass off as general category student in front of my class mates. But that was not a happy solution. I used to feel so much uneasiness. I used to hear lots of derogatory remarks about Dr. Ambedkar, Mayawati and about other Dalit students within my friend circle but I could never reply.
After completing my B. Tech, I worked for six months and then joined Jawaharlal Nehru University for my post graduation. Here, things were far better. I came in touch with the Dalit students’ group working there and slowly became assertive about my identity. I started appreciating my background much more. I belong to khatik caste. My forefathers used to take out the skin of dead animals. My family had migrated to Delhi long back and both my parents have raised me by working in tanneries, skinning dead animals. Why should I be ashamed of my parents, my identity? Now, I am very much comfortable about my identity and in fact feel proud about my parents.
VII. Brand IIT: The Myths and the Reality
Many efforts are being made to cleverly create a façade of IITs as great, ‘quality’ institutions, producing ‘brilliant’ researchers, engineers, etc. Why this façade is being created?
It is to hide a very important fact.
The Indian Parliament envisioned that the IIT system would “provide scientists and technologists of the highest calibre who would engage in research, design and development to help building the nation towards self-reliance in her technological needs”[6]. A Central statute, the Indian Institute of Technology Act, 1956, & 1961 declared the IITs to be “of national importance”, thus paving the way for huge financial support from the government as well as for the conferring of a high degree of autonomy.
However, instead of providing scientists and technologists for the country, IITs have turned themselves into institutions for providing lucrative jobs both in India and abroad for the kith and kin of urban English speaking upper caste/middle class and in the process completely sidelining their basic objectives. That is why the ‘quality’ of IITs is being marked in direct proportion to the pay packages offered to the students by the multinationals and not by any technological innovations.
This is the reason behind so much hostility against SC/ST students in these campuses, as their entry into these institutions will threaten the chances of the ruling class in the job market. They want to monopolize these opportunities and don’t want to share it with any marginalised community in the country.
Hence, the need behind all the chest thumping, talks of ‘merit’ and IIT being the ‘centre of excellence and quality’ becomes necessary in order to hide the fact that the IITs, rather than preparing students for research and development (the reason for their creation), have completely metamorphosed themselves into institutions that cater only to the interests of the parasitic upper caste/middle class and the multinationals.
If the IITs remained honest towards their basic objective of facilitating the development of the country through research, they would have gladly accepted the entry of students from the communities that have been directly involved in the production processes like Dalits and Tribals, instead of stigmatising these students as inherently ‘weak’, based on their performance in entrance exam.
IITs: Foreigners’ benevolence towards a Third World country
The ‘upper’ caste IITians- both faculties and students- bemoan a lot about the reservation policy for SC/ST students, claiming that it downgrades the quality of Brand ‘IIT’. However, the truth is that these IITs, themselves, are products of the largesse of the developed countries. These countries, in the name of ‘aid in development for a Third World Country’, not only, provided them technical and financial support to start with, but are still helping them to upgrade and to remain at par, through liberal scholarships and various other assistance, so that the Indians could run such ‘institutes of excellence’.
IIT Bombay was founded in 1958. It was set up by UNESCO and the erstwhile Soviet Union. IIT Madras was established in 1959 with the technical, academic and financial assistance from the Government of the erstwhile West Germany. IIT Kanpur was established in 1959 by the US government and a consortium of nine USuniversities helped to set up the research laboratories and academic programmes there. Similarly, IIT Delhi was established in 1961 by the benevolence shown by the former colonial masters United Kingdom. Till now, not even a single IIT has been able to stand on its own in terms of research, cutting edge technology, training, even after guzzling huge amount of money from the Indian exchequer and huge financial aids from various other sources including foreign countries.
A large number of today’s merit-mongers (the IIT faculty members) benefited from these foreign scholarships together with an opportunity to study in liberal foreign campuses. It would have been interesting if the citizens of these countries had opposed these opportunities provided to Indians, arguing that such efforts were diluting the ‘quality’ of their campuses and taking away opportunities from their own deserving candidates!
Ranking of IITs at the international level
In the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (2006), IIT Kharagpur was the only engineering college from India listed among the top 500 universities worldwide and that too among the lowest bracket (below 400). The purpose of this ranking by the Chinese university was, “to find out the gap between Chinese universities and world-class universities, particularly in terms of academic or research performance.”
This ranking is an honest attempt by the Chinese to improve their universities and technical institutes. In contrast, nobody has ever heard of such an attempt from India. Except one, no other IIT figures in the list of top 500 institutes worldwide. It is intriguing that the IITs, monopolized by much ‘meritorious’ upper caste community, are not able to compete with foreign institutions, even after years of continued support and assistance from many reputed institutions and at the expense of huge public money, the budgetary allocations for IITs for the year 2005 being a whopping 650 crores!
[1] ‘IITs: Doing Manu Proud’ was a report brought out by the Dalit Media Network, Chennai in December, 2000. It can be accessed on http://www.ambedkar.org/research/IITs.htm . This report looked into the cases of caste discrimination in IIT Madras. It is probably the first of its kind and therefore I have put this report as part II to acknowledge it.
[2] There is a lot of confusion regarding the total number of students that have been terminated. Despite all our efforts, the IIT administration has refused to provide any information regarding the same. There are conflicting reports regarding the numbers and IIT has deliberately tried not to clear the air. In fact, the IIT Director lied before the Scheduled Caste Commission and said that only 7 Dalit students have failed. However, IIT Delhi has now acknowledged in the media that 12 Dalit students have been terminated. The Dalit students allege that the numbers are much more. Around 20 Dalit students have been terminated this year, they say.
[3] ‘The IIT Story: Issues and Concerns’, Frontline, Vol. 20-Issue 03, Feb 01-14, 2003
[4] ‘Quotas are route to inequality at IITs and IIMs’, DNA NOW, June 24, 2008
[5] ‘ IIT coaching classes a Rs 10K crore Industry?’, The Times of India, 3rd July 2008 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3190000.cms
[6] India’s PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s address on the first convocation at IIT Kharagpur, 1956
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July 10, 2008
Healthcare: A Justice Issue
Getting personal: Human suffering and human rights
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June 15, 2008
60 Million Child Laborers in India
The Dalit Freedom Network is a movement that is dedicated to releasing children from child labor and preventing children from entering bonded labor. The vast majority of child laborers in India are low caste and Dalit children. Each child in each of our schools is a child that has been plucked from child labor and human trafficking. We now have nearly 15,000 of such children in our schools. Join us in eradicating bonded child labor and the trafficking of children in India.
Sify.com's Report on 60 Million Child Laborers in India
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January 19, 2008
Racism blindness, cricket, and the Untouchables
On January 8, 2008, CNN/IBN’s ‘Face the Nation’ broadcast focused on racism within India. It was not surprising that, during a call-in survey, 83% of their audience agreed that India has its own racism. The caste system is at the core of this social illness.
Reporters interviewed black students from Africa in the famous Jawaharlal Nehru University who prefer to stay inside the campus rather than venture out onto the streets of New Delhi to face racist comments and taunts. The broadcast was triggered by the huge controversy around allegedly racist comments by one of India’s cricket players to an Australian player in the ongoing cricket series between the countries. The match referee banned the Indian player for three matches. The Indian team has appealed.
While it appears the Indian player is not guilty, it is baffling to see how some Indians are trying to take a higher moral ground on the whole issue of racism. The argument is that India raised its voice against Apartheid. We are the ones who condemned racism in America. We are the pluralistic society that will not stand for racism.
Yet, while this is true, one of the CNN/IBN panel members expressed the unsaid truth. He stated that Indians are hard-core racists due to the caste system and our obsession with being fair and white in skin color. Nowhere in the world is there such an obsession with becoming fair-skinned. Cosmetic companies blatantly run ads which are racist in character. There are numerous quacks who offer creams and treatments that are harmful, but promise to make your face ‘fair’ in a couple of weeks.
Professor Kancha Ilaiah, a political scientist who was on the show, pointed out that Indian life is replete with terms that are racist. When the lower castes are called ‘Chamars’ or ‘Bhangis’ or ‘Chandalas’ or ‘Kalia’ and similar names, it degrades and insults people who were born into this category, occupation, and place in the caste system.
A few Australian papers indirectly pointed out that all is not well in India on the racism front. But the editors did not go on to directly point out what I commonly hear during my travels around the world. In the wake of globalization, the world is very aware of India’s caste or racism problem.
Increasingly, very few people are buying the argument that the caste system is not racism. From genetic discoveries to binding United Nations’ judgments, the truth is becoming obvious.
In fact, not only is caste a form of racism, it is a greater evil. Educational achievements or economic successes sometimes eliminate the barriers of most racism. But my beloved country is full of examples of Dalits who returned home after great accomplishments only to be scorned by the upper castes. In 2001, Dalit leaders said with one voice at the UN conference at Durban that caste is worse than racism because there is no way out of the caste system. Once a Dalit, always a Dalit.
What’s the solution? Non-governmental groups, like ours, can continue to empower Dalits through primary education, microeconomic projects, and more. The national and state governments should enforce the good laws which are already on the books. But transformation of our racism-laden society will only happen when corporate responsibility is practiced. Corporations wield power and respect. Companies, whether Indian or multi-national, must address racism in their operations. And, more important, they must invest in schools, colleges, and continuing education which teach the equal potential for every human being. Knowledge of the truth sets people free.
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August 15, 2007
India's Statue of Liberty
On August 15th, India celebrates her 60th birthday as a modern independent nation. Celebrations are already on as Indians proudly remember their past 60 years and the many successes in them. The Dalit freedom movement too celebrates the founding of the democratic Indian nation. There is much to be proud of.
In the fields of agriculture, technology, education, economics and our experiment with 'democracy' we have done well. We have managed to remain a pluralistic, democratic, free India in spite of attempts to destroy our diversity, plurality of religions and our democratic foundations by fundamentalist forces. These forces have never reconciled to the idea of a modern Indian nation built on the modern Indian Constitution.
We remember our founding fathers: Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Predictably, the elitist media and spin doctors will pay some lip service to Ambedkar or completely forget him as did the speechwriters and advisors of President Bush when he gave his speech in New Delhi in March 2006 and mentioned Nehru, Gandhi and Tagore as India's great founding leaders.
Tagore was a great Indian but not a founding father of the Indian nation. Ambedkar was. Without Ambedkar, the author of India’s Constitution and a Dalit, there would be no social justice in the nation; there never would be the empowerment of millions of Dalits and lower castes in modern day India through the means of 'reservation' and affirmative action by the State in keeping with the requirements listed in the Constitution.
Without Ambedkar and Nehru there would be no religious freedom of the kind we have known in India for 60 years. It has withstood efforts of the Hindutva forces – those who live by the slogan ‘one nation, one religion, one culture’ – to take away this freedom from the masses through anti-conversion laws dubbed as 'freedom of religion' laws. Thankfully, three governors of states ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have recently rejected the anti-conversion laws passed by legislators.
The Indian National Congress party – traditionally nonsectarian and currently in power nationally – seems to have a schizophrenic mentality towards these laws. While the Congress governors in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are contesting the laws passed by the BJP governments, the Congress leadership allowed the state of Himachal Pradesh – where the Congress party is in power – to pass an anti-conversion law despite wide spread protests by civil society groups.
This catering to a 'soft-Hindutva' line has been one of main reasons for the demise of the Congress Party in northern states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and the Hindi heartland. Those who want Hindutva do not opt for the softer version. They go for the real thing. And anyway the majority of oppressed peoples and the minorities do not want Hindutva because it will not deliver freedom, dignity and development for the masses. The people of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, two of India's most populated states, have repeatedly demonstrated this.
The present Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, a Dalit woman, reportedly is building a statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in the city of Lucknow which will stand taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York. If this really happens it would be a fitting symbol of liberty and equality within the Indian nation as we celebrate our 60th birthday: an Ambedkar statue with the Constitution in his hand. The Hindutva founders declared over 60 years ago that they would discard the present Constitution in favour of a 'Hindutva' Constitution! I don't think it will ever happen.
There is good news for the Dalit campaign for freedom, equality and empowerment. The IT Indian giant Infosys recently set an example by picking dozens of Dalit candidates and training them for India's IT sector. Bharti, the company that owns Airtel which is perhaps India’s largest mobile phone operator, has followed and just announced they will train low caste engineers and other minorities who are left out because of the lack of access to English education and other facilities. This is very good news indeed. Will US companies and other foreign companies follow suit?
And what about Infosys, Bharti and others going one step further and investing in schools that will give English education to Dalits and lo