TRUTH BEHIND THE IDEOLOGY OF HINDUTUVA

Constitution Review and the 'Hindu Constitution':

The present Constitution of India, framed by Dr. Ambedkar, himself a Dalit, clearly has its own limitations. It is, in essence, a liberal bourgeois document. Yet it also affords the Dalit-Bahujans vital spaces and opportunities closed to them by Brahminical law, including, particularly, the Manusmriti. The notions of equality, freedom, democracy and secularism contained in the present Indian Constitution, all of which are integral to the project of Dalit-Bahujan emancipation, are vehemently denied in Brahminical law. This explains why Dr. Ambedkar publicly burnt the Manusmriti in 1928 in a symbolic protest against the entire Brahminical tradition.

Dalit-Bahujan intellectuals have argued, and rightly so, that the long-standing Hindutva demand for scrapping the present Constitution and replacing it with a 'Hindu' Constitution, is aimed essentially at doing away with even the limited opportunities and spaces that the Indian Constitution provides the oppressed castes, and to re-impose the varnashrama dharma or the rule of caste.[15] For, as Sangeetha Rao, a leading Dalit ideologue, argues, Ambedkar's Constitution is, in spirit, vehemently opposed to the law of Manu, and that is the main reason why Hindutvawadis wish to scrap it. The 'Hindu Constitution' that they wish to replace the present Constitution, would, in Rao's words, provide legal sanction to 'Hindu fascism', 'Brahminical dictatorship' and the 'Manuvadi Vyavastha' (the Manu-ite social system)'. Rao writes that behind the Hindutva demand for a Presidential system of governance and for a 'Hindu Constitution' is the actual goal of establishing the 'Brahminvadi or Manuvadi
system', for the 'social, political and economic democracy' that Dr. Ambedkar championed is completely opposed to the 'system based on 'Manu-ism'. As Rao sees it, the 'Hindu' system of government that the Hindutvawadis are crusading for is nothing but the 'caste system', the rule of the 'upper' castes and the permanent slavery of the Bahujan Samaj. He writes that the 'Hindu Constitution' that the Hindutvawadis advocate aims at clamping down on democracy and further suppressing the Dalit-Bahujans, because, as he argues,

The Hindu social order does not recognize the necessity of representative government composed of the representatives chosen by the people [.] It is nothing short of Hindu fascism. It is reflected in the statement of Sangh Parivar mafia leader Ashok Singhal, 'A lasting government will be a Hindu government. If the people do not like it they can go to the country of their choice. Otherwise, they will be at the mercy of Hindus'.[16]

Rao sees the close collaboration between the 'upper' caste elites and western imperialists, the sharp curtailment of social welfare programmes, the Hinduisation of the education system, the non-implementation of anti-untouchability laws and the sharp increase in atrocities on Dalits in India under BJP rule as all part of the wider Hindutva agenda that aims at the firm suppression of the Dalit-Bahujans and the reinforcement of 'upper' caste hegemony, faithfully following the commandments and underlying spirit of the Manusmriti.[17]

Another leading Dalit spokesman who has subjected the Hindutva project to incisive critique is Ram Khobragade. In his Indian Constitution Under Communal Attack, Khobragade links the destruction of the Babri Masjid with the Brahminical Hindu and anti-Ambedkar agenda of Hindutva, and argues that the Hindutvawadis:

[In] the heart of their hearts bitterly hate Dr. Ambedkar, who made their religion thoroughly naked [.] Dr. Ambedkar was the architect of the modern social order of this country, and this very thing these Manuvadis, the protagonists of the Manuvadi social system could not digest. Consequently, on his 37th Mahaparivaran Day [6 December, 1992, when they destroyed the Babri Masjid and unleashed a wave of bloody attacks on Muslims all over the country] they showed to the entire world that henceforth India would be governed not by the Constitution of Dr. Ambedkar but by the social order created by Manu, and by other religious scriptures created by various rishis-the supporters of the varnashram caste system.[18]

Likewise, another Dalit spokesperson, R.D.Nimesh, argues, the Hindutvawadis' opposition to the Constitution stems from the fact that the Constitution allows some limited possibilities for Dalits to take to education and better employment, which in itself is a direct contradiction of the varnashrama dharma that the Hindutvawadis seek to revive.3 'In the name of establishing Hindu rule', he argues, the Hindutvawadis actually seek to impose the 'Brahminical law of caste exploitation'.[19] This view is echoed by Lalloo Prasad Yadav, former chief minister of Bihar, who argues that, 'There is the hand of Manuvadi, fascist and casteist forces behind the move to change the Indian Constitution'.[20]

Of course, this actual intention is not stated openly, for in the present political system, which the Hindutvawadis so despise, the Dalit-Bahujans, well over 80 per cent of the population, constitute such a vital force that cannot be ignored. Hence, the Hindutva opposition to the Constitution is camouflaged in different terms-as an effort to promote 'Hindu' 'cultural authenticity' or to do away with legal guarantees for religious minorities, such as their right to administer their own educational institutions, regulate their personal affairs in accordance with their own personal laws and so on.

While critiquing the present Constitution as 'anti-Hindu', the Hindutvawadis seek to replace it with an authoritarian set-up that would more effectively serve the interests of the 'upper' castes and western imperialist forces. Thus, the communist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet argues that in calling for a review of the Constitution and suggesting a presidential system of government in place of the present parliamentary system, the Hindutvawadis seek 'the perpetuation of bourgeois-landlord rule'. Surjeet adds that, 'The RSS has always been in favour of a unitary authoritarian state structure in the image of its own organisational structure, based on the principle of one leader, all the rest working as followers'. The Hindutvawadi demand for a presidential system is a major step in this direction.[21] Similarly, Prabhat Patnaik, a noted Indian economist, writes that behind the Hindutva demand for the rewriting of the Constitution is the aim of 'abridg[ing] democracy in order to
consolidate the collaborationist bourgeois state. It is no accident that the need to amend the Constitution is being felt by the very government [the present BJP-led regime] whose pursuit of pro-imperialist policies is marked by unprecedented vigour'. Patnaik sees the Hindutva efforts to do away with parliamentary democracy and replace it with American-style presidential rule as a response to the growing participation of the lower caste/class masses in elections as a means for the assertion of their rights, which is now threatening the rule of the 'upper' caste/class minority who now find parliamentary democracy a major challenge to their entrenched hegemony. At the same time, Patnaik argues, the western imperialist-imposed 'globalisation' that the Indian ruling classes have so willingly embraced also demands the 'rolling back' of democracy to smoothen the way for multinational corporations to loot the country.[22]

Behind the Hindutva critique of the Constitution in the name of doing away with its allegedly 'anti-Hindu' elements one can discern a cleverly thought out Brahminical strategy of attacking the very spirit of the Constitution that lays down the principles of equality, democracy and social justice that are so stridently opposed to the Brahminical tradition. This explains how and why the entire Constitution, including its fundamental values of equality, democracy, social justice and freedom that are specifically mentioned in its preamble and later elaborated upon in the document, is branded as 'un-Hindu' by many Hindutva writers. One of these is a certain Bengali Brahmin, Abhas Chatterjee. In a booklet titled The Concept of Hindu Nation, published by a hardcore Hindutva publishing house Voice of India, Chatterjee goes so far as to claim that, 'Leave other things alone, even the preamble of the Indian Constitution does not contain any Hindu idea. It enumerates no principles based on Hindu ethos and ideals'.[23] Likewise, another Brahmin scholar, P.N. Joshi, president of the Rashtriya Hindu Manch, writes in a book tellingly titled Constitution: A Curse to the Hindus, that 'Pakistan is an Islamic country. It is governed according to Islamic law. India is a Hindu Rashtra. Here it ought to be Hindu law'.[24] Naturally, he does not elaborate on what misery Hindu law would bring to the vast majority of the Indians themselves-the 'lower' castes, whose cruel oppression was given religious sanction precisely by the Hindu law that he so passionately advocates.

Since the entire edifice of Brahminism and Brahminical law rests on the permanent subjugation of the Dalit-Bahujans as servants of the 'upper' castes, it is hardly surprising that Hindutva ideologues are vehemently opposed to reservations in jobs and in the state and national legislatures for the 'lower' castes that are provided for in the present Constitution. This is one of the major reasons for their demand that the present Constitution be scarpped or 'reviewed'. For electoral purposes the Hindutva brigade may not openly oppose reservations, but leading Hindutva spokesmen have repeatedly spoken out against them as allegedly 'dividing' the Hindus and promoting 'casteism', as if reservations were responsible in any way for creating the caste system in the first place.

According to the Brahminical scriptures the duty (dharma) of the 'lower' castes is simply to slave for the 'upper ' castes without any hope for recompense. For 'lower' castes to take to any other profession would be a violation of the iron law of dharma and would be a grave challenge to the Brahminical religion. That is why in the Ramayana Rama is said to have struck off the head of the Shudra Shambukh for having so much as dared to engage in tapasya and thereby threaten to ascend to heaven in his physical body. As an 'ideal' Hindu king, Ram, as Dr. Ambedkar notes, was an 'upholder of the varna vyavastha', or the caste system that spells out permanent servitude for the Shudras as their dharma.[25] Hence, for the 'upper' caste devotees of Rama today the 'lower' castes must not deviate from their jati dharma or caste duty of slaving for the 'upper' castes. The reservations in government jobs for the Dalit-Bahujans that the present Constitution provides is a flagrant violation of this
principle, and this explains, partly, the vehement demand of Hindutva forces to replace it with what they call a 'Hindu' Constitution, which would guarantee permanent 'upper' caste privilege and 'lower' caste slavery.

Reservations are only one aspect of the present Constitution that Hindutvawadis are vociferously opposed to and for which they label it as 'anti-Hindu'. In fact, the entire gamut of laws that flow out of the basic premises of the present Constitution that can be used in favour of the Dalit-Bahujans in their struggle against 'upper' caste/class hegemony is seen by Hindutva forces as 'un-Hindu', thus explaining their opposition to the Constitution itself. As Hindutva ideologues view it, the law is not what the Constitution says it is but, rather, what the pontiffs of Brahminical Hinduism, arch-defenders of the caste system and Brahminical privilege, say it should be. As Ashok Singhal, general-secretary of the VHP, declares in no uncertain terms, 'What the dharmacharyas pronounce as dharma, we will also accept as law' (The Pioneer, 4 December, 1992). Lest anyone labour under any doubt as far as what this would mean for the Dalit-Bahujans, we have it from authority of all the classical and defining texts of Brahminism that the caste system and the subjugation of the Dalit-Bahujans are an integral and inseparable component of dharma. As scholars of 'Hinduism' have pointed out, in the Brahminical texts, the sanatana dharma or 'eternal religion' is not defined as a single, universally applicable concept. Dharma, as reflected in the notion of varnashrama dharma, is caste and context specific, and depends on one's caste (varna) and stage of life (ashram). The dharma of the Brahmin is to study, teach the 'upper' castes and to receive donations. The dharma of the Shudra is simply to serve the 'upper' castes. It is this dharma that contemporary Hindutva aims to revive, despite its denials to the contrary. As Abhas Chatterjee writes, the state that the Hindutvawadis seek to construct would 'not only accord the highest place to sanatana dharma but [would] also protect its values, project its glory in the world, and make it its source of inspiration'. At the same time, Chatterjee calls for the scrapping of the present Constitution, arguing that, '[W]e have to change almost all laws and policies' and replace them by those rooted in the sanatana dharma.[26] Dalit-Bahujans must shudder at this menacing prospect.

BAN THE RSS AND VHP

Hindutva And The Dalit-Bahujans: Dangerous Portents

By Yoginder Sikand

Hindutva, the unique Indian form of Indian fascism, is the modern incarnation of Brahminism. Although it projects itself as the defender of the 'Hindu' community against imagined 'enemies', such as Muslims and Christians, it is actually premised on an unrelenting hostility towards the vast majority of the so-called 'Hindus' themselves-Dalits, Shudras and tribals. The very basis of what is today called Hinduism is the caste system, which is specifically geared to preserving and promoting 'upper' caste hegemony that is based on the systematic exploitation and oppression of the so-called 'lower' castes. Hindutva, therefore, is not to be characterized as 'Hindu communalism' as such, as it does not represent the interests of all so-called 'Hindus' as such. As numerous writers have pointed out, a more apt description of Hindutva is that it is the contemporary form of Brahminism. In other words, Hindutva may be defined as Brahminical fascism.

This being the case, Hindutva cannot be countered simply through pious appeals to 'Hindu-Muslim unity'. The fatal mistake that secularists have consistently been making is to see Hindutva as simply 'Hindu communalism'. Consequently, they have been trying, ineffectively, to combat it simply by invoking a common ethical impulse that they argue underlies the different religions. Since Hindutva represents the contemporary agenda of Brahminism, it poses an immense threat not just to the Muslims of the country, but equally, or perhaps even more so, to the vast majority of the so-called 'Hindus' themselves-the Dalits, Shudras and tribals, who, taken together, form more than 70 per cent of the country's population as a whole-the Bahujan Samaj. Clearly, Hindutva aims at preserving and promoting 'upper' caste rule and 'lower' caste slavery, inspired by a vision that draws on the cruel laws that the Brahminical scriptures prescribe for the 'lower' castes. As Shamsul Islam rightly notes, the
Hindu Right aims at 'denying [.] Dalits of all human rights'[1], and the same applies for its implications for other members of the Bahujan Samaj. The most effective way of countering Hindutva is, therefore, to mobilize these marginalized groups against the Hindutva forces by exposing the grave threats that the Hindutva agenda poses for them. In other words, highlighting the menacing implications of Hindutva for the Dalit-Bahujans is the surest way to combat Hindutva, for it is they who are today being so assiduously used by 'upper' caste forces as foot-soldiers in their pogroms against Muslims and Christians, thus threatening to drive the country to the brink of civil war. The Dalit-Bahujans account for the vast majority of the Indian population, and if they are able to see through the Brahminical designs behind the Hindutva project, Hindutva would die a natural death.

This booklet is a critique of Hindutva from a Dalit-Bahujan perspective. It focuses on what Hindutva means for the Dalit-Bahujans, showing how it is essentially geared to preserving and promoting 'upper' caste Hindu rule and suppressing the stirrings of revolt that are now becoming increasingly visible among the 'low' caste majority.

The Historical Roots of Hindutva

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was established in 1925 by K.B.Hedgewar, a Maharashtrian Brahmin. Initially, almost all its members were Brahmins, and even today, its top level leaders are almost entirely from the 'upper' castes, particularly Brahmins. The RSS was founded at a time when Maharashtra was witnessing a powerful movement of revolt among the 'lower' castes against 'upper' caste tyranny led by such stalwarts as Mahatma Jotiba Phule and Dr. Ambedkar. The establishment of the RSS at this time was hardly coincidental. Rather, it is apparent that the rise of 'lower' caste consciousness and protest against 'upper' caste hegemony was a key factor in the setting up of the RSS. The spread of the RSS in other parts of the country can also be explained on similar lines. Feeling increasingly threatened by the growing awareness and militancy among the 'lower' castes, 'upper' caste leaders found in the ideology of Hindutva a convenient way to co-opt the 'lower' castes and to divert their wrath from their real oppressors (the 'upper' castes/classes) onto imagined enemies in the form of Muslims, Christians and communists. By appealing to the notion of an imagined 'Hindu nation' and 'Hindu community', Hindutva ideologues (almost all Brahmins) sought to deny the existence of internal caste and class contradictions among the so-called 'Hindus'. This denial aimed at drawing the 'lower' castes behind the 'upper' castes, and to destroy 'lower' caste movements of protest against 'upper' caste hegemony. Accordingly, the plight of the 'lower' castes was sought to be explained away as a result of alleged Muslim or Christian 'persecution', while the 'Hindu' period of history was glorified as a 'golden age'. In this rewriting of history, the oppression of the 'lower' castes that saw its genesis in the so-called 'golden age' was completely ignored. So, too, was the inconvenient fact that the oppression of the 'lower' castes is specifically mentioned and prescribed in all the Brahminical scriptures.

Yet, the projection of the notion of a united 'Hindu nation' was only at the level of rhetoric. In actual fact, the proponents of Hindutva sought to carefully preserve the exploitative caste-class system by conveniently remaining silent on it. And this continues to be the case till today. Not surprisingly, the Hindutvawadais have never taken up any militant struggles for the rights of the Dalits, for distribution of land to the poor, for the rights of workers and tribals and so on. Instead, they have consistently supported the interests of the capitalist-feudal-Brahminical elites. Not surprisingly, the core support-base of the Hindutva movement since its inception onwards has consisted of landlords, former rulers of princely states, industrialists, merchants, priests-'upper' castes in general, all of whose interests are diametrically opposed to the Dalit-Bahujans', and whose hegemony is based on their systematic subjugation.

That Hindutva fundamentally aims at the preservation of the Brahminical system, based as it is on the exploitation of the 'lower' caste majority, has been pointed out by numerous scholars. In his incisive study of the Hindutva phenomenon, titled Saffron Fascism, Shyam Chand, a Dalit scholar and activist who served for many years as member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly, quotes from a secret circular sent out by the RSS to its preachers. It clearly indicates the sinister Brahminical strategy of using the Dalit-Bahujans to attack the Muslims and Christians, while at the same time aiming to keep the Dalit-Bahujans under the permanent slavery of the 'upper' castes.

Dalit School boy beaten to death by upper caste students in Tamil nadu

A friend gone: Students of Mallur Government HSS grieving the death of their classmate Raman at his village on Tuesday.

SALEM: Tension prevailed in the suburban town of Mallur since early Tuesday morning following the death of a Dalit school student.

He was reported to have sustained injuries in a clash between two groups of students that took place on the campus of the Mallur Government Higher Secondary School, a fortnight ago.

Heavy police pickets were posted in the town to avoid any untoward incident. Police also denied permission to those who attempted to take out a rally to protest against the attack on the boy, which they claimed had subsequently led to his death.

The 19-year old boy, Raman, one of the twin sons of a daily wage labourer, who studied Plus-One, was said to have suffered severe internal injuries from the clashes that broke out between a few boys.

Raman allegedly vomited blood while he was in the class room on November 19 and was taken to private nursing homes at Mallur and Salem and was diagnosed with heart valve damage. He was rushed to a Chennai hospital where he died on Monday.

Anand, the boy’s father, told The Hindu that immediately after a violent clash in the school on September 25, he preferred a complaint with the Mallur Police Station against a few students who beat Raman when the latter went to park his cycle in the stand. “But police have neither registered a first information report nor initiated any action so far,” he charged.

SC/ST students studying in that school alleged caste based discrimination both by the school management and other upper caste students.Investigations have revealed that there is separate parking space for the SC/ST students alone in that school.

Headmaster N. Athiappan said the school staff council suspended two boys, who beat Raman, for 15 days.

HINDU TERRORISTS

An Officer, But Not A Gentleman?

The arrest of an army officer has raised fears of a new dimension to terror, reports RANA AYYUB

WHILE INVESTIGATIONS into the Malegaon blast of September 29, which killed six people at a mosque just before Eid, have yielded conclusive proof of the involvement of extremist groups in the attack, they have also provided worrying evidence of the participation of army personnel in its plotting and execution. The disturbing trend came to light with the arrest of military intelligence officer Lt Colonel Srikant Purohit, India’s first serving army officer ever to be arrested. According to Anti- Terrorism Squad (ATS) officials, Purohit had siphoned off money from the military to fund Abhinav Bharat, a two-year-old right-wing extremist organisation implicated in the blasts. During questioning, Purohit allegedly said he came in contact with Abhinav Bharat’s working president and blast case prime accused, Major (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, during postings with military intelligence in Nashik and Pune. He is said to have told the police he was influenced by terror attacks across the country and the violence he had seen in Kashmir between 2000 and 2005, when he was on intelligence wing postings in places like Kupwara and Anantnag. Purohit had then been part of the MI-25, also known as the Intelligence Field Security Unit, whose main job is to run sources across the border. Though the investigating agencies deny that Purohit masterminded the Malegaon attack, they call him one of its key conspirators.

Purohit’s links with the Bhonsala Military School commandant Col (retd) SS Raikar and with Upadhyay, both under arrest, suggest that more armymen could be involved. Purohit has allegedly organised meetings at Deolali with men involved in the blasts and ex-army men.

Purohit underwent narcoanalysis and brain-mapping tests, in Bangaluru on November 9. He is due to be produced in the Nashik magistrate’s court on November 15, where further details of his invol - vement could be revealed. ATS officials have said they are also trying to establish his role in the 2004 blasts in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region, as well as in the explosion apparently caused by a bomb going off accidentally at an RSS worker’s house in Nanded in 2006. Several factfinding agencies point to Purohit and Mithun Chakraborty, as being the same person. Chakraborty was named by one of the Nanded accused as an arms trainer in Sinhagad, Pune. He has so far evaded arrest; the accused’s statement made under narcoanalysis described him as a tall, well-built man who sported a beard and was known as ‘Fauji’.

Speaking to TEHELKA, Himani Savarkar, Hindu Mahasabha head and a key Abhinav Bharat member, stated how Purohit told her that “something needed to be done to curb Islamic terrorism”. She added: “He was pained by what he saw and sympathised with Abhinav Bharat’s stand, but wasn’t able to dedicate much time to the outfit because he was in the military.” Savarkar denied any knowledge of Purohit’s role in the blasts, but said people wanted to avenge the deaths of those who died in terror attacks.

ALSO UNDER investigation for the Malegaon blast is the Bhonsala Military School, where 54 people are suspected to have received arms training in 2001; their names were on a laptop Purohit owned, which has unaccountably gone missing during the investigation. The military school has been the venue for Bajrang Dal camps, where the terror plot is said to have been hatched. A meeting was also held here this April, which all the blast accused are said to have attended. TEHELKA spoke to the school’s secretary, Diwakar Kulkarni, who said the school had answered the questionnaire the ATS had sent it on the training camps held on its campus and denied any knowledge of them. However, he seemed to have no answer when asked how the authorities could not have any idea of the training provided at the camps when the school constitution requires its officials to be present at all times, in all meetings.

The ATS has presented five of the accused — Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Ajay Rahirkar, Rakesh Dhawre and Jagdish Mhatre — in the Nashik court, after which they were sent to judicial custody. The court was told that the ATS had discovered that Dhawde, a gun expert, was wanted in the 2003-04 blasts in Jalna, Purna, Parbhani and Nanded. It was also revealed that Rahirkar, Abhinav Bharat’s treasurer, had received a huge sum from hawala transactions, which he supplied to the other accused at Purohit’s behest.

The ATS has also picked up two men from Vapi and Pune, Sunil Ghawre and Anil Mahajan. While Ghawre is an active member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Hindu Jagran Manch, he was also close to Swami Ashimanand who ran the Shabridham ashram in Gujarat’s Dangs district, which was raided by the ATS. Ghawre was close to both the Swami and Malegaon main accused Pragya Singh Thakur, and apparently helped Thakur plant the motorcycle used in the explosion at the blast site. The ATS has also intensified its search in Malegaon for locals who would have played a key role in the attack. If sources are to be believed, some men, including a doctor, have already been detained. Meanwhile, the political angle to the case has also become obvious with the ATS filing an application in the Nashik court to question a high-profile BJP leader from UP. Public prosecutor Ajay Misra said the application had been filed after the UP Government failed to cooperate. The leader in question is speculated to be a BJP MLA from UP, and is a close assosiate of Yogi Adityanath, a BJP leader in eastern UP. The police have also reportedly arrested some more people from UP, including a high profile seer. The police is also reported to have detained some more people from UP in the case.

While the investigation has revealed the hand of ultra right-wing terror organisations behind previous blasts, it has also woken up investigating agencies in other states to look at other blasts in a new light. If sources are to be believed, an Andhra Pradesh police team will visit Mumbai to interrogate those arrested in the Mecca Masjid blasts once the ATS finishes its interrogation. Meanwhile the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), which had been accused of laxity in the Nanded blasts case, appears also to have woken up. A team of CBI officials came to Mumbai recently and met ATS officials. CBI director Ashwani Kumar also said that there seemed to be a possible link between the Nanded and the Malegaon blasts.

With nine people arrested so far and numerous detentions made every week, the truth about the army personnel’s involvement in the Malegaon blasts may finally be coming out.

TRUTH BEHIND THE LAW COLLEGE STUDENTS CLASH

Three students were seriously injured in a violent caste clash that broke out between two groups of students at Ambedkar Law College.The students waged a pitched battle, even as a posse of policemen waited outside the gates and news photographers clicked pictures.Knives, iron rods, wooden logs and tubelights were freely used by the clashing students. The police remained silent spectators, waiting for a call from the college principal for help.Tension has been running high inside the campus since October 30.

According to police sources, a few Dalit students objected to the institution being referred to as just ‘government law college’ without the pre-fix ‘Dr Ambedkar’ in posters put up inside the campus by students from a caste Hindu community.It degenerated into an ugly skirmish and police advised the principal to look into the matter and set up a peace committee. The efforts of the college authorities and the police to bring unity among the students were in vain.Since it was the first year Dalit students who confronted seniors on the poster issue, the latter allegedly vowed not to allow them to sit for the examination.


On Wednesday, trouble started when the caste Hindu students tried to prevent freshers of the Dalit community from appearing for the semester examination.As a group waited with lethal weapons inside the college to attack the junior students, a few seniors escorted them inside the examination hall. Suddenly, the armed group attacked the Dalit students. Chitirai Selvan (21), a fourth year student, sustained serious injuries in the ear and back of the head and was admitted at Stanley hospital.A group of Dalit students retaliated.In the attack, Arumugham (20), a third year student, was injured and brought in a semi-conscious state to Government General Hospital. Ayyadurai (20), a second year student, sustained injuries to his right hand, forehead and leg. A third year student, Bharathi Kannan, was injured in both hands, forehead and thigh.Finally, the principal called the police, who rushed in and chased the students away.The police filed a complaint with the police naming Gubendran, Ravindran, Chithiraiselvan, Manimaran, Vetrikondan, Prem Kumar and Ravi Verman. Three of them were taken into custody by the police.

First Black President of the United States

Obama creates history

WASHINGTON: Democrat Mr Barack Obama on Tuesday scripted history capturing the White House in a landslide trouncing Republican John McCain to become the first Black President of the United States.

After an extraordinary nearly two-year election campaign, the 47-year-old Illinois Senator, born to a Kenyan father and White American mother, secured 338 electoral college votes against 155 of McCain, according to CNN projections.

The 72-year-old Mr McCain conceded defeat and urged all Americans to join him in congratulating his rival. In his concession statement in Phoenix, he said Mr Obama had his goodwill and he believed that the victor would make necessary compromises to bridg e differences and defend the security of the country in the “dangerous world.”

Mr Obama will be sworn in as the 44th US President on January 20 next year, replacing Republican incumbent Mr George W Bush at the end of his eight-year rule and marking a new milestone in American history 45 years after the peak of civil rights movement of Martin Luther King.

The charismatic Democrat, who had defeated Hillary Clinton in the primaries to clinch the party nomination, led a landslide expanding his party's majorities in both chambers of the US Congress - House of Representatives and Senate, rejecting Bush's leade rship.

The Democratic winner immediately faces huge challenges in the form of worsening US economy and the mess he inherits from Mr Bush in the American war in Iraq. - PTI

Dalit youth killed in police firing

Dalit youth killed in police firing

UNBEARABLE: Villagers grieving the death of K. Suresh at E. Kottaipatti in Madurai district on Tuesday.

MADURAI: K. Suresh, a 19-year-old Dalit youth, was killed in police firing at E. Kottaipatti, one-and-a-half km from Uthapuram in Madurai district. The incident followed a clash that broke out between the police and villagers, who were protesting against Sunday’s attack on the convoy of Puthiya Tamilagam leader K. Krishnasamy.

The villagers of E. Kottaipatti demanding the arrest of people involved in the attack, had erected barricades by cutting trees and placing stones on the roads, preventing the entry of vehicles. Simultaneously, there were protests in Elumalai where Dalits and non-Dalits, armed with weapons, hurled bottles and stones at one another. S. S. Krishnamoorthy, Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Madurai Range, who was on his way to Elumalai, was prevented from proceeding further at E. Kottaipatti. The police asked the villagers to remove the barricades. There was a heated exchange of words, between the villagers and police, which escalated into a clash.Muruga Devi (40), mother of the deceased, said the police hurling abuses at women, started attacking them with lathis, injuring many. They also assaulted the men. When she was attacked, Suresh came to her rescue. But the police opened fire, without any warning, killing him on the spot, she alleged. Suresh was working as a wiring technician in a firm in Tirupur.

There were bloodstains on the road as the police dragged the body for around 500 metres before taking it into a vehicle. E. Kottaipatti has a population of 600 families where Dalits are in majority. Inspector-General of Police (South Zone) Sanjeev Kumar, camping at Elumalai, told The Hindu: “Villagers armed with deadly weapons blocked the DIG’s vehicle heading towards Elumalai. They started throwing stones and three policemen were injured in the attack and the police opened fire.” He said adequate security had been provided, with a DIG, two Superintendents of Police and two companies of police. Four more companies of police would be deployed.

Solatium

Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has announced a solatium of Rs. 2 lakh for the kin of Suresh. A Revenue Divisional Officer would hold an inquiry.

Muslims in Army

Muslims in Army : Hiding what`s well-known

The reason for the Muslim under-representation in the Indian army, or the Sikh over-representation, is something that lies partly in history, and its public disclosure would harm nobody.

There’s something surreal about India’s debate on Muslim under-representation in the Indian army. If the defence minister says the army has done no head-count of its Muslims, how did the army give an exact Muslim figure of 29,093 last month? The figure is backed by a retired lieutenant-general who says the Muslims are 2 per cent.

Whatever the exact percentage, a huge Muslim under-representation in our army is a fact. So is a huge Sikh over-representation. See the contrast. Sikhs form 1.86 per cent of India’s population but number around 8 per cent in the Indian army. Muslims form 13 per cent of India’s population but are 2 per cent in the army. Why should this truth about Muslim under-representation be suppressed? Or that of Sikh over-representation? But an irrational love of secrecy causes Indian rulers to hide information whose public disclosure would harm nobody.

Just as Muslims are under-represented in the army, so are the Bengalis, Biharis, Oriyas, south Indians or Gujaratis. And just as Sikhs are over-represented, so are the Jats, Dogras, Garhwalis, Kumaonis, Gurkhas, Marathas, Pathans and Punjabis.

The reason for this disparity lies in history. The Indian army’s recruitment pattern was set 150 years ago by India’s 1857 uprising. Traumatised by the rebellion, the British army adopted a recruitment policy that punished the groups which rebelled and rewarded the ones that stayed loyal. Because Muslims of Awadh, Bihar and West Bengal led the uprising, the British army stopped hiring soldiers from these areas.

Also blacklisted from these places were high-caste Hindus whose regiments in Bengal had also mutinied. In contrast, the British raised the recruitment of castes that had stood by the British to put down the uprising. These castes were the Sikhs, the Jats, Dogras, Garhwalis, Kumaonis, Gurkhas, Marathas, Pathans, plus Punjabis, both Hindus and Muslims. Honoured as martial races, they received preferential treatment in army recruitment for the next 90 years. Like any institution, the Indian army’s a prisoner of the past.

Even today, it favours enlisting men from the martial races. Their over-representation in the Indian army is huge. Figures bear this out. Of 2.87 lakh jawans hired by the army in the last three years, a disproportionate 44,471 came from three “martial” states, Punjab, Haryana, and the mountain state of Uttaranchal. So these states which account for 5 per cent of India’s population provided 15 per cent of India’s army jawans.

In contrast, the fewest recruits came from “non-martial” West Bengal, Bihar and Gujarat. These three states account for 30 per cent of India’s population, but they provided only 14 per cent of army jawans in this three-year period. So the Indian army has not only a religion-based disparity in recruitment, but also one based on caste and region. A glimpse of this discrimination was provided by a press release issued by a defence office in Jammu five years ago. Seeking recruits for the Indian army, the press release said: “No vacancies for Muslims and tradesmen.” Meaning that martial Dogras were welcome to apply, but not Hindu business castes like the Baniyas and the Khatris.

About the Muslim under-representation in the Indian army, the reasons are three. One was Partition. Before Independence, Muslims were around 25 per cent of the Indian army and 25 per cent of undivided India. But when India broke up and Muslim soldiers were asked to choose between India and Pakistan, they joined Pakistan en masse. So Muslim numbers in the Indian army dropped so drastically that they were only 2 per cent in 1953, according to India’s then minister of state for defence. Jawaharlal Nehru himself expressed concern that “hardly any Muslims” were left in the army. And Muslim numbers never really picked up in the last 60 years for a well-known reason.

India’s military establishment hesitates to hire Muslims as soldiers because it suspects Muslim loyalty to India. This discrimination is a natural outcome of India and Pakistan’s bitter hostility over 60 years. In similar situations, the same thing happens all over the world. The Israeli army doesn’t trust its Arab soldiers in jobs related to defence security. The Buddhist Sinhalese army under-recruits its Hindu Tamils lest their sympathies lie with the Tamil Tigers. After 9/11, US army recruiters would probably screen a Muslim American volunteer more thoroughly than a Christian American. Thanks to our four wars with Pakistan, the same anti-Muslim animus works here in army recruitment.

Proof of it lies in an enormous mass of documentary and other evidence which expresses distrust of Muslims. Otherwise, why does India have separate regiments for the Sikhs, Jats, Dogras, Garhwalis, Kumaonis, Mahars, the Nagas, even the Gurkhas, but not a single Muslim regiment? This is tragic but it’s a truth which shouldn’t be suppressed. It should be acknowledged and dealt with.

Events have consequences. Muslim under-recruitment in the Indian army is a consequence of Partition. India and Pakistan’s hostility is seen in both countries in Hindu versus Muslim terms. So it’s natural for India’s Hindu army establishment to distrust a Muslim who wants to join as a soldier.

This prejudice itself discourages qualified Muslim youths from applying, which drives down Muslim numbers even more. Another reason for Muslim under-recruitment is the relatively poor education of Muslims. When they try to enlist as soldiers, they are simply out-competed by better-educated Sikh, Hindu, and Christian youths. So Muslim leaders are quite right that Muslim under-recruitment in the army deprives the community of a good, life-long source of employment. It’s a sad situation not so easy to correct.

In life, however, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. The under-representation of Muslims and other caste or regional groups benefits the over-represented ones. The composition of the Indian army is totally askew numbers-wise. West Bengal’s population is eight times that of Uttaranchal. But Uttaranchal provided almost the same number of army recruits as West Bengal last year. Compare a “martial” Punjab with a non-martial Gujarat. Punjab’s population is half that of Gujarat. But it provided four times as many people to the Indian army as Gujarat. The Indian army hired far more recruits in Rajasthan than in Tamil Nadu though Tamil Nadu’s population is higher. Essentially, the Indian army is dominated numbers-wise by Sikhs and Hindi-speaking Hindus of north India. The current status quo suits them perfectly.

Natural disasters affect Dalits most, says expert

Natural disasters affect all communities but their impact on the Dalits and other marginalised social groups in India is the greatest, says an Indian social activist and researcher. “Disasters affect the Dalits the most because of the nature of their habitations, their isolation from the surrounding communities of upper castes and restrictions on access to relief and rehabilitation,” Prasad Sirivili said in an interview.

A contributor to the latest report on the world’s minorities by the London-based Minority Rights Group (MRG), Sirivili said that almost everywhere in India, the Dalits lived in the low lying areas, which were prone to flooding.

The better lands in the villages, on higher ground, were always arrogated by the richer upper castes, Sirivili told IANS over telephone from New Delhi.

A study of the monsoon floods of 2007 in various parts of India showed that 60 percent of the dead were Dalits.

“At the flood or cyclone relief shelters, Dalits often do not get a place. And when relief comes, the upper castes arrogate most of it. When the time comes for rehabilitation and compensation, again there is gross discrimination,” he said.

“One of the reasons for this is that the Dalits are generally not property owners to get any compensation, but the other equally important reason is that government agencies go by property lost and not livelihood lost.

“While property loss is compensated, livelihood loss is not. The Dalits may not have lost property, but they have lost their livelihood,” Sirivili pointed out.

At present secretary of the New Delhi-based National Campaign on Dalits Human Rights (NCDHR), Sirivili said that if the Dalits sought better relief, rehabilitation and compensation, they get assaulted.

“False police cases are foisted on them and sometimes they are even murdered by members of the local dominant castes.”

A Dalit himself, Sirivili has a doctorate in economics from the University of Hyderabad. Before taking charge of NCDHR in New Delhi, he headed the Sakshi Human Rights Watch in Hyderabad.

One of the interesting findings of his studies in various parts of India is that government-sponsored economic and social development schemes and market forces have actually created new opportunities for discrimination against the Dalits.

“Take irrigation for example. When irrigation is introduced, it is meant to benefit the entire village, but actually it benefits only the upper castes. Water is denied to the Dalits, and if they demand they are put down ruthlessly.

“Women’s self-help societies are meant to promote women’s development, but this has created a new area for discrimination. The Dalits are discriminated against or marginalized in the womens’ self-help societies. In the panchayats also, they are not listened to. In some places the Dalits have to sit separately.”

Asked if there were regional variations in India or whether the plight of the Dalits was the same all over, Sirivili said: “Conditions are a little better in south India because of certain movements of social equality in the 20th century. But discrimination and untouchability are still facts of life in rural India.

“That such things get reinforced with economic and political development is particularly disturbing,” he added. Clearly, development is not a panacea for social ills, as is generally believed.”

Hindutva’s terror link

The revelation that a militant section of the Hindutva network was behind the September 29 bomb blasts in Muslim-dominated Malegaon in Maharashtra and Modasa in Gujarat has shattered the myth propagated by the Hindutva campaign that only Islamist fundamentalism breeds terrorism. Indeed the Sangh Parivar’s loaded argument has been that while all Muslims are not terrorists, all terrorists are Muslim. Saffron rabble-rousers have had no compunction in lobbing this charge at the Muslim community as a whole. While it has become almost an article of faith with the parivar to link Islamist fundamentalists with terrorism, today, with the arrests of radical Hindu activist Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and four others, among them a retired Major, the Sangh and its affiliates find themselves warding off the same accusations. Prima facie, the case against the Sadhvi and her accomplices is serious. The Anti-Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra, which has been on the trail of Hindutva terror since 2006, has charged them under the Indian Penal Code for murder as well as under sections of the Indian Explosives Act, 1884, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The antecedents of the accused, the suspected role of former military personnel in providing training to them, and the recovery of military-grade explosive material (possibly RDX) from the blast sites, have added to the discomfiture of the BJP and the parivar, which claim to be India’s only truly nationalist forces. The Sadhvi is a former activist of the BJP’s student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. She and her accomplices were associated with several right-wing Hindu extremist organisations. There is another deeply worrying aspect to the case: How did the accused lay their hands on military-grade explosives? The other question is how far the trail will go as the investigators pursue the leads provided by this lethal mix of Hindutva and terror. There is no escaping the crisis that this has set off in the parivar. The BJP’s first response was to deny that any Hindutva outfit could be involved in terror. But party chief Rajnath Singh, who has been photographed with Pragya Singh Thakur, has subsequently gone on the offensive, insisting that she must be presumed innocent unless proven guilty. What all this highlights is the imperative of acknowledging that terrorism is too serious a challenge to be left to opportunistic, subjective interpretation. Combating terror is a responsibility governments and political parties across the spectrum must take up in a united and cooperative way.

BJP's leader remain silent on Kandhamal crisis

Rajnath Singh

BHUBANESWAR: Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Sunday said if the party came to power at the Centre it would bring in a new law to deal with terrorism.

At a press conference here, Mr. Singh blamed the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre for linking terrorism with Muslims.

“Terrorism will not end in the country when Ministers in the Central government seek citizenship for Bangladeshi infiltrators and term the SIMI a socio-cultural organisation,” he observed, while criticising the UPA government for doing away with the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

The BJP president, who was here to attend a meeting of the party’s Orissa unit, held the UPA government responsible also for the financial crisis facing the country.

“The problem of inflation and price rise facing the country was the result of the wrong policies and mismanagement of the UPA government,” he said.

As regards the Kandhamal crisis, Mr. Singh condemned the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmanananda Saraswati in the district on August 23. He, however, was silent about the anti-Christian violence that followed.

Demanding that the Orissa government strictly implement the law pertaining to conversion, the BJP president said that if required, the Central government should also bring a law to check conversion by use of force or allurement.

The plight of tribal children in M.P.

Dying of hunger

AJOY ASHIRWAD MAHAPRASHASTA
in Satna

Malnourished tribal children die because ICDS schemes are all but non-existent, and the government is in denial.

PRAMOD PRADHAN

At Hardua village in Ucchera block of Satna district, a child with Grade 3 malnourishment and suffering from skin infection.

THE final five kilometres to Ramnagar (Khokla), as the village is officially called, in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh has to be done on foot down a hill thick with shrubs and bushes. As we enter the village, eager eyes scan us for food or some other kind of livelihood support only to droop in disappointment once they learn that the wait has been in vain. The people of the Kol and Mawasi tribes who inhabit this village are a desperate lot: they have neither employment nor food, and their malnourished children are dying. In the past four months at least four children have died and those standing by the side of their elders had protruding stomachs, sunken eyes, wrinkled legs and slightly deformed heads, all symptoms of malnutrition.

Ramnagar has one small pucca house where the school, the anganwadi (government-run creche) and the panchayat sub-office function from. The people overcame their timidity despite the presence of the village patwari and the gram panchayat secretary to tell Frontline that the anganwadi and the ration shop had been closed for almost the whole of last year.

Sukhlal, one of the village elders, said: “Only a month back the preparation of the midday meal in the school and the anganwadi’s supplementary nutrition programme and the work through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme [NREGP] were given to us. We didn’t get even six days of employment by the government last year and the ration shop opened only once in six months.”

But the district records claim that one person from each of the 100 families in the village was given 60 to 94 days of employment and each family got 35 kg of grain (wheat or rice) every month.

The story is no different in Hardua and Nakgheer villages, a 60-km drive from Satna town cutting through difficult rocky terrain and streams. Neither village has electricity but it is not a priority for the residents. “All we want is food and employment,” said Jagannath, an elder in Hardua. Here, too, children have died of malnutrition-related causes.

Pappu, a resident of Hardua, lost two of his children in August on consecutive days. “We don’t know what happened to them. They had fever for many days and none of the medicines we gave seemed to have any effect,” he said. “And because we have very little money and a very low income, we could not feed them well,” he added.

Most of the people living in such difficult conditions blamed destiny for the deaths, and in the extreme called it God’s will. They have been looking forward in vain to the government support they had been promised by political parties during elections. The issue came to the fore when people from 150 villages of Satna district at a meeting on August 24 decided to boycott elections if their women and children continued to suffer for want of food.

An investigation by the Right to Food campaign claimed that at least 163 children died of severe malnutrition in the past four months in four districts of Madhya Pradesh – Satna (69), Khandwa (47), Shivpuri (32) and Sheopur (15). All the children belonged to tribal/indigenous communities – Kol, Mawasi, Saheriya and Korku.

These are some of the most deprived communities in the State; most of their members are landless and have no permanent source of income. Their food insecurity and deprivation have been worsened because of schemes that do not function and corruption in the NREGP and the public distribution system (PDS).

In Bhopal, a senior official of the Department of Women and Child Development, who did not want to be named, said: “Why is the government blamed for everything negative that happens in the State? Shouldn’t the tribal community be blamed for malnutrition in the villages, for neglecting their children and for lack of hygiene in their houses?”

Such bureaucratic insouciance is up against a court directive. On September 26, the Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered Chief Secretary Rakesh Sahni to file a report on the malnutrition deaths in the State by October 13. It also asked the Collectors of the four districts to file affidavits regarding the deaths. The court was hearing a public interest petition filed in May 2007 by the Madhya Pradesh Right to Food campaign. The court also stated that malnutrition could be a possible reason for the recent deaths. This was in contrast to the State government’s position.

The public interest petition sought District Collectors and the Chief Secretary to be made accountable for the lack of implementation of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme. Earlier, the Supreme Court, while passing an interim order on May 8, 2002, in PUCL vs. Union of India and others, stated that District Collectors, Chief Executive Officers and the Chief Secretary should be held responsible for the lack of implementation of the ICDS.

Meanwhile, in Satna, the district administration’s response to the deaths has been one of denial. District Collector Vijay Anand Kuril said: “There are malnourished children in Satna and we have already submitted our report to the Health Department. However, the recent deaths of children in the district were not because of malnutrition but because of various diseases like jaundice, diarrhoea and fever, heat stroke, and so on.”

A joint team of State and Central government officials visited the district in the last week of September and, according to the Collector, found no Grade 3 and Grade 4 malnourished children in its villages. The district officer of the Women and Child Development Department, M.L. Mehra, also denied any malnutrition-related deaths.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has graded malnutrition cases into four, and of these Grade 3 and Grade 4 represent severe malnourishment and children detected to be in these categories require immediate care.

Damning statistics

AJOY ASHIRWAD MAHAPRASHASTA

A typical example of a Grade 3 malnourished child at Ramnagar(Khokla) village in Majhgawan block of Satna district.

Madhya Pradesh tops the list of States in infant mortality rate (IMR), with 72 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the Sample Registration Survey 2007-08. Even the State government website shows that 97,223 children in the age group of 0-1 year died of malnutrition between April 2005 and July 2008.

Madhya Pradesh also tops the list of States in undernourishment in the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), with 60.3 per cent of the children suffering from malnutrition. The NFHS-3 shows a 6 per cent increase over NFHS-2 in malnutrition-related deaths in the State. The total number of malnourished children in the State has risen to more than six million, according to the report. Of them, 12.6 per cent are severely malnourished as against the national average of 6.4 per cent.

According to senior officials in the administration, the State has, with the assistance of UNICEF and the World Food Programme, unveiled special schemes such as the Bal Shakti Yojana, Shaktimaan and the Bal Sanjeevani Abhiyan to treat severely malnourished children. Besides, it has advocated community-based programmes to tackle the problem.

All these schemes come under the ICDS, a major scheme for children under six years of age, who comprise 16 per cent of the total population in the State according to Census 2001. If allocation of funds is any indication, the ICDS is not a priority for the State government.

It spends only 0.86 per cent of its total budget through the ICDS for children under six. Incidentally, only 1.51 per cent of the State’s budget is allocated for the Department of Women and Child Development. In money terms, the allocation is Rs.590 crore, up from Rs.190 crore last year. But only Rs.222 crore has been allocated for the implementation of the ICDS in 2008-09 against the need of Rs.799 crore.

All the 1.078 crore children under six years of age in the State should be covered through universalisation of the ICDS, the Supreme Court had ruled in PUCL vs. Union of India and others. For this purpose, only 67,000 anganwadi centres are functional, whereas, according to informed sources, the actual need is for 1.26 lakh centres.

The Seventh Report of the Commissioners of the Supreme Court states that as per Census 2001 as many as 6.6 million children are enrolled in anganwadis run under the ICDS in Madhya Pradesh, but only 3.89 million, or 35.9 per cent, get supplementary nutrition from the State through anganwadis.

Satna district, where the deaths of children were first reported, presents a bleaker picture. Even the Women and Child Development Department’s figure for Grade 3 and Grade 4 malnourished children in 28 villages in the district is more than 4,000, but between January and August 2008 only 435 children were brought to nutrition rehabilitation centres (NRCs).

Of the eight blocks in Satna, there are only two functional NRCs, with a total of 26 beds. The one in Satna has 20 beds and 36 children are being treated there, and the one in Nagod block has six beds. An NRC has been sanctioned in Malhar block but it is not yet functional. The NRCs, which fall under the Public Health Department, get a list of malnourished children from the Women and Child Development Department.

However, officials of both the departments deny their responsibility for the deaths in the district and shift the blame to the other.

A senior official of the Women and Child Development Department, who did not want to be named, said children were 10 times more prone to fatal infection because of malnutrition.

Despite this, the State has only 121 NRCs, according to the official figures, and only 95 of them are fully functional. These centres have only 1,678 beds to take care of 13 lakh children. A Right to Food campaign activist, Prashant Kumar, said: “With the present 14-day package for children at NRCs, it would take 33 years to reach and serve all the malnourished children in Madhya Pradesh. Alarmingly, 49 NRCs have no trained staff.”

After the local media carried reports of the malnutrition-related deaths, the NRCs extended their seven-day supplementary nutrition programme to 14 days. Under this package, the child is brought to the NRC and given adequate nutrition for 14 days. After that the NRC has to follow up on the condition of the child every seven days until the child comes out of Grade 3 malnutrition.

Given this state of affairs, it was no surprise that the Satna district administration was wary of giving the media details of the implementation of various schemes. In fact, throughout the Frontline team’s stay, its movements were monitored by the police and the civil administration. The police said the monitoring was being done because free movement in the area involved risk as it was a “dacoit-infested” area.

However, they seemed more interested in knowing what the team was doing and what conversations it had with the people. Collector Kuril even said the reporter should have sought his permission before coming there.

According to informed sources, the district administration has been suppressing details of severely malnourished children in Satna. According to Kuril, all the Grade 3 and Grade 4 category children in the district are being treated in the NRCs.

However, doctors in the blocks, who did not want to be named, said there were many more severely malnourished children and alleged that there was pressure from the district administration not to report such cases.

In the 11th edition of the six-monthly report of the Bal Sanjeevani Abhiyan, published in November 2007, the government committed a faux pas. The report says that 3,18,371 children were weighed and only 2,941 of them were found to be malnourished. It says that the severely malnourished in Satna district form 0.92 per cent, which would be 2,557 children.

PRAMOD PRADHAN

The meeting on August 24 in Majhgawan block, at which people from 150 villages in Satna district participated and decided to boycott elections if the government continued to neglect their women and children.

In the same report, in another table, this figure is given as 0.80 per cent, which would mean 2,173 children. That is, 384 children were wiped out of the records. When the local media highlighted the anomaly, the government removed the second table from the report.

The figures of malnutrition in the NFHS and UNICEF reports are very different from those in the government’s records. The NFHS-3 says that there are 12.65 per cent severely malnourished children in the State as opposed to the State government’s figure of 0.56 per cent.

Officials in the ICDS say they have their own parameters to judge malnutrition. This is despite the fact that UNICEF was appointed by the Madhya Pradesh government to oversee the process of women and child development in the State.

The shoddy implementation of the PDS and the NREGP has compounded the problem in the villages worst affected by malnutrition. The Supreme Court has stipulated that the poor, including below poverty line and Antyodaya Anna Yojana cardholders, should be provided at least 35 kg of grain, but people in Satna district say they do not get more than 20 kg.

While the district administration claimed that it gives 94 days of employment in the villages, the people said they did not get even a single day of work last year and not more than six days this year. The residents of Hardua village also said that the sarpanch had taken away their job cards and that he himself filled up the registers.

With the government looking to promote private industrial investment, the tribal people may have to face a new problem: large-scale displacement. The government claims to have signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth Rs.3,00,000 crore with private companies, particularly in the mining sector.

A move to privatise the health sector is also apparent in the setting up of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti, a public-private venture where the community would generate funds for treatment of the poor. There are also plans to give children in anganwadis ready-to-eat food provided by private companies through the supplementary nutrition programme. This may not go down well with the tribal people, who have their own unique food habits.

A pilot project to distribute ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) has been on since September in Khalwa block of Khandwa district under the directive of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development. The aim is to treat severely acute malnourished (SAM) children, but critics of the programme see in it an avenue to generate a market for ready-to-use foods among the poor.

With almost all their community rights over forests taken away and with employment opportunities dwindling, the future looks anything but promising for the tribal people of Madhya Pradesh.

Who are the Aryans and who are the Brahmins?

Who are the Aryans and who are the Brahmins?

To make it easier to understand, please try to define who are the Americans?

 

If we want to answer the question thoroughly on who are the Americans we have to discuss about the Native Americans (also called earlier as Red Indians by European settlers), European Americans (Also called as White Americans), African Americans (Also called as Black Americans), Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans. A deep look into their origin would show they were from diverse ethnic, racial, religious groups.

The terms were coined during the 19^th and 20^th Century. But if you go back in history before the European settlers came to America there was no name as Native American or Red Indian. The original tribes of the current continental America were by names Apache, Seminole, Mohican, etc. The spirit of Americanism so far is so great that these diverse distinctions gradually erode away and in another say 500 years from now American may mean the inhabitants of America. Only a close and thorough investigation at that time will reveal Native Americans had nothing to do with European Americans racially and African Americans had nothing to do with European Americans or Native Americans and so forth.

Likewise the term Aryan has meant a very wrong meaning now. A thorough and detail investigation reveals Aryans were not a single race or from a single religious background. It will be hard for the current Brahmins to accept this truth as most of the theories about Brahmans revolve around the thinking as if Aryans were a single race. 

To unravel the mystery and bring forth the truth one has to check the contradictions in ancient stories like Ramayana and Mahabharata.

To indicate the Caste system did not exist during the actual historical period of Ramayana and Mahabharata there are many evidences within those poems.

Drona was the teacher for the Kavravas and the Pandavas.

According to the Caste system practised in India during the 15^th to 19^th Century AD a person of a Caste cannot work in a different category of work than that of his Caste. So a Brahmin has to learn the Vedas and perform Prayers. A King has to fight wars and cannot perform Prayers and a Sudra cannot fight or perform prayers.

So according to this rule if Drona was a Brahmin then he and his sons could not have has fought in the Mahabharata war and Drona could not have been the commander / General for the entire Kavrava army at one point of time. But the Mahabharata in contradiction to this shows Drona and his sons waged war. At the same time at another chapter in the Mahabharata there is a story in which Drona’s cows were taken away by thieves and Arjuna has to go with his army to recover the cows and return them back to Drona and the logic here was Drona was a Brahmin and could not bear arms and hence Arjuna has to go to fight for Drona. Are these two incidents contradictory to the theory of Caste?

If so, why?

Let us take the case of Karuna. Karuna was raised up by a chariot driver. Until Karuna’s death the general public did not know he was actually the son of Kundi the Mother of the Pandavas. So to the public Karuna was a charioter’s son. Under what category were charioters according to Brahmanism? They were Sudras. So if the caste system was prevalent during the times of Mahabharata then Duriodana could have never made Karuna a King because it violates the laws of castes. If Duriodana dared to challenge castes then Drona and other Brahmins should have left the Kauravas or punished Duriodana but that did not happen. Not only was Karuna made a King (conversion from a Sudra to a Kshatriya) but also he was eligible to contest to marry Dravpathi! (A Sudra turned Kshatriya to marry a Kshatriya Princess!). If castes existed at that time do you think that would have been possible?

Let us take the case of Krishna. Krishna was born in a King’s family (Kshatriya) but was grown up in a Merchant family (Vaysya) but did the job of a Sudra (Charitorer for Arjuna). How was that possible if Castes existed at that time!

Salian against his wishes was commanded by Duriodana to be the Charioter for Karuna.

(A Kshatriya to become a Sudra!) If castes existed at that time, Salian would have called forth the Castes code of conduct (The so called Hindu law or Manu’s laws) and castigated Duriodana for such a violation of Cast laws. That did not happen indicating there was no Caste system at that time!

One of the conditions for the Pandavas by the Kavravas after they lost in game of dice to the Kavravas was that the Pandavas should live in cities in disguise for a year and should not be identifiable by the Kavravas (Like a hide and seek game). So how did the Pandavas hide? They went in hiding and lived and worked as Sudras! Had the caste system existed at that time could the Pandavas live as Sudras?

All these above evidences clearly indicate Caste system did not exist in India at the time of Mahabharata.

The origin of Brahmanism is after the collapse of Buddhism in the 1^st Century B.C. This is when the Caste system was devised and propagated. To propagate Brahmanism the Brahmins wrote the Smritis, Sruthis, Brahamanas, Upanishads, etc after that over the next 300 to 700 years. To give legitimacy and antiquity to their newly devised system they introduces new stories into the existing Ramayana and Mahabharata. They inserted stories that justify caste. They inserted Bhagavad-Gita inside the Mahabharata to justify Brahmanism were originally Krishna advised / pleaded Arjuna to fight his own relatives.

As these insertions were done over a period of time and by several different authors according to their belief, there are many different philosophies and contradictions in the most versions of the current Mahabharata.

Though any amount of hiding facts and rewriting did not completely erase the underlying truths. There lead to contradictory stories within Mahabharata and Ramayana. In order to prevent others from questioning these contradictions the Brahmins Manu’s law specified as one of its law not to question the validity of the Smritis, Sruthis and to be followed as given without questioning them. As this also did not help much they added one more law to ex-communicate anyone that questioned these laws, then they prevented anyone other than Brahmins to read these laws. Hence formed a new law that no one other than a Brahmin should study or recite the Vedas, Smritis, Sruthis, Brahamanas, and Upanishads. As reading them will bring forth the truth that they were trying to hide. But they gave a religious twist stating that they were so sacred that only a Brahmin can read them.

Though any amount of lying and modifying historic facts could not explain and justify the caste system as ancient history reveals people switched over jobs and Gurus participated in wars, the Brahmins adopted a new theory proposed by British that Aryans were a race and Kings Priests, Merchants (Kshatriyas, Brahmins, Vaysias) all came from the Aryan race. This helped the British to propose a superior European race over the Asian races. This helped the Brahmins to cover up the inconsistencies that they were trying to cover up that arose with their Brahmanism and Caste system. So the British and Brahmins together happily adopted and propagated the Aryan invasion theory that suggests Aryans were a race and they had (Kshatriya, Brahmins, Vaysias) and they defeated the ancient Indian races and made them their servants and made them the Sudras. To aid this they also propagated the stories that Pandavas, Rama and all famous ancient ruling dynasties as Aryans! As British educated only Brahmins during the first half of British rule in India, the Brahmins had an upper hand in completely rewriting history to their advantage. To unravel the deceit and bring forth the truth Dr.B.R.Ambedkar made every sincere effort. As his efforts started exposing the Brahmins, the Brahmins adopted all strategy to defame him and anyone that brought forth the truth.