singursaga: Dalits Media Watch - News Updates 13.07.13

When millions of immigrants from South Asia migrated to the United Kingdom in the past fifty years, many Hindus and Sikhs brought along their ancient attitudes towards caste. Illegal in India, caste prejudice remains deeply embedded -- not only on the sub-continent, but also in the global Indian Diaspora, including Britain, where some 400,000 Dalits (or "Untouchables") currently live.

In April of this year, the British government passed landmark legislation to ban caste discrimination in the country under the Equality Act, to protect U.K.'s Dalit community from prejudice from other Hindus.

Under India's complex and ancient caste customs, the Dalits are at the very bottom of society -- so low that they are not even considered part of the system. Historically, Dalits have suffered immense discrimination, poverty and marginalization by upper-caste Hindus and others. They have traditionally been forced to work at the most dangerous and dirtiest jobs that higher-castes would not deign to perform.

The new British law -- designed to prevent such mistreatment within its large Indian immigrant community – is unusual since it was one of the few that did not address the racism and prejudice often faced by South Asians from the host white Britons, but rather tackled discrimination issues within the immigrant community itself.

However, now, as reported by The Independent newspaper, a Conservative minister is allegedly seeking to weaken or defeat the new law due to pressure from Hindu groups in Britain who oppose the legislation and insist that caste" is not the same thing as "race."

Equalities minister Helen Grant wrote a letter to Hindu organizations in which she suggested that the laws concerning Dalits could potentially be removed from the books if it is deemed to be unnecessary after a period of five years.

"I made no secret … of my disappointment that it has been necessary for the Government to concede to making an order to include caste as an element of race in the Equality," Grant wrote in a letter to the Alliance of Hindu Organizations dated May 9.

"We remain concerned that there is insufficient evidence of caste-based discrimination to require specific legislation. We also have concerns that incorporating caste into domestic law – even in the context of anti discrimination – may send out the wrong signal that caste is somehow becoming a permanent feature of British

society."

Indeed, Grant (who, ironically, is black) seemed to suggest that caste prejudice does not exist in Britain to any great degree, making the new law subject to revisions or even repeal.

"We have the option of removing it from the statute book," she flatly declared.

Grant's letter has sparked an outcry from some quarters which support the inclusion of caste prejudice in the equality laws.

"It's entirely improper that the minister who's supposed to be implementing the legislation -- and initiating the consultation -- is making it clear she's opposed to the whole process," said Liberal Democrat MP Lord Eric Avebury, whose party supported the law.

Dalit activists in the U.K., who hailed the April legislation as an important breakthrough, are now concerned by the latest developments.

"Until this legislation is [finally codified into law], the thousands of Dalits who say they are discriminated against will have no recourse to justice," said Meena Varma, director of the Dalit Solidarity Network UK.

"Grant's tactic seems to be to kick the whole thing into the long grass until five years have passed and the Government can scrap the legislation."

The Independent cited the case of Vijay Begraj, a British-born Dalit, who filed a case of caste discrimination three years ago after he was subject to abuse and harassment by other Hindus at a solicitor's office in Coventry where he and his wife Amardeep (a Sikh Jat, a much higher caste) both worked.

"Hindu groups say there's no issue of caste discrimination in Britain but it's nonsense," Begraj said.

In 2005, the New Internationalist blog interviewed several British Dalits who detailed incidents of prejudice and discrimination (both subtle and blatant) which they had endured at the hands of upper caste Hindus and Sikhs. For example, British women of Indian upper-caste descent working in a shop in the city of Wolverhampton refused to drink water from the same tap as Dalit women. In some cases, Dalits allege they were either denied promotions or jobs by upper-caste employers when their origins were revealed.

Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour Party MP who is not a Dalit but advocates for them, told the Indian Express newspaper that caste prejudice was "exported to the U.K. through the Indian Diaspora. The same attitudes of superiority, pollution and separateness appear to be present in South Asian communities now settled in the U.K."

Corbyn added: "I represent a constituency in Central London where this is much less prevalent unlike in many other places outside where it is a serious human rights violation, one that is difficult to prove unless the

legislation is in place."

NDTV

Tamil Nadu: Second autopsy on Dalit man's body today

http://www.ndtv.com/article/south/tamil-nadu-second-autopsy-on-dalit-man-s-body-today-391570

Chennai: Doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences will conduct a second autopsy today on the body of Ilavarasan, a Dalit man, who was found dead on July 4 in Dharmapuri in western Tamil Nadu. Yesterday, the Madras High Court ordered the second autopsy, adding that its order does not doubt or cast any aspersions on the first post mortem performed by a team of three government doctors in Dharmapuri.

The High Court's order came after two doctors who re-examined the body gave conflicting opinions.

Earlier, seven forensic experts including one chosen by Ilavarasan's family had viewed the video recording of the first autopsy. Of the seven doctors, only the one chosen by the family wanted a second autopsy.

21-year-old Ilavarasan married Divya Nagaraj, a girl from the Vanniyars, an upper-caste Hindu community, in August. Weeks after they eloped, Divya's father committed suicide which triggered riots against Dalits in and around their village. Around 250 Dalit homes were allegedly torched by Vanniyars.

Divya appeared before the court last week and said she doesn't want to return to her husband citing continuing animosity between the two communities and haunting memories of her late father. The following day, her husband was found dead near a railway track.

The first autopsy report had revealed that Ilavarasan died of a head injury. His parents, however, have alleged murder and point fingers at the dominant Vanniyar community and the PMK that backs it.

A second autopsy performed in the presence of their doctor, they hope, would find evidence that would strengthen their case.

Related News

The Times Of India

AIIMS doctors to do second autopsy on dalit youth

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/AIIMS-doctors-to-do-second-autopsy-on-dalit-youth/articleshow/21039195.cms

OutLook

How Real-Life Tamil Love Stories End

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?286831

Names and dates march past memory in an unending list of horrors—Kilvenmani, Villupuram, Muthukalathoor, Bodi, Kodiyankulam, Melavalavu, Tamirabharani, Unjanai, Thinniyam, Gundupatti, and now, Dharmapuri...massive caste atrocities against Dalits have given Tamil Nadu's map zones shaded for horror and shame. With this history of hate and a tradition of honour killings, 20-year-old Ilavarasan's death does not come as a surprise. It does not come as a shock either—in the last eight months following his marriage to Divya, not a single week passed without the PMK publicly declaring, often to thunderous applause, that Dalit men who lured Vanniyar girls would be murdered.

Even as it serves the interests of the PMK to portray Ilavarasan's death as a suicide, the many inconsistencies surrounding his autopsy suggest otherwise. While advocates appearing on his family's behalf point to lapses: the post-mortem was not conducted between 10 am-4 pm, his hair was not shaven to examine the nature of the head injury, his organs were not weighed, there were discrepancies in collecting blood for chemical analysis. Such lacunae directly result in the surgeon being unable to make the final call on whether the suspicious death is a murder or a suicide. A bench of the Madras High Court watched the post-mortem videos with a panel of experts to decide on a second autopsy—the footage was shocking in itself, as it revealed the steady stream of visitors, including policemen, politicians and lawyers inside the mortuary while the procedure was being carried out. The consensus is clear on one vital fact: irrespective of whether it was a suicide or murder or a murder made to appear like a suicide, the blame squarely rests on the caste terror unleashed by the PMK.

In the aftermath of Ilavarasan's marriage to Divya of the Vanniyar caste last year, 268 Dalit homes were burnt and vandalised in three villages in Dharmapuri on November 7, 2012, by a PMK-led mob that used crude petrol bombs in the assaults. Although the scale of the attacks was staggering, such an incident of violence is only a small footnote in the sizzling history of the PMK, a party that thrives on anti-Dalit hate politics to consolidate its Vanniyar vote bank. Masterminded by S. Ramadoss, most reverentially referred in party circles as Doctor Ayya (pronounced I Yeah, translated for non-Tamils as Lord or Sir or Yahweh, as the occasion demands), a man who manaes to maintain a poker-face even in the face of this everyday terror.

Once upon a time, Doctor Ayya's primary achievement lay in guiding young men of the Vanniyar Sangam to cut trees, block roads, burn Dalit settlements and employ similar tactics of intimidation against the state and the Scheduled Castes to secure for his people the tag of Most Backward Caste, and thereby create a sub-category of reservation to which most of the Other Backward Classes aspired to belong. He shot into prominence calling for the bifurcation of the state, and used every occasion he got to remind people of his rudimentary medical knowledge by demanding a referendum on the policy of prohibition (Do You Want To Drink And Die? or Do You Want To Just Die?)

According to legend, myth, anonymous blogs, unauthorised amateur historians and the official biopic broadcast on the party-owned TV channel, the Vanniyar caste traces its origin to a fire sacrifice, where armed men on horses erupted from a sacred cauldron and undertook twelve expeditions against tyrannous demons (read asuras) and destroyed them. Shorthand: Setting fire is second nature to seasoned party cadres. When Dalits in recent history started to seek their share in the power-structure and fought to win panchayat or parliamentary elections, forming their own political groupings like the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, or even excelled in the daily grind of feeding a family and building a home, it turned out to be a season for arson. So, as his political constituency declined and when a full-scale carnage was called for, all that Doctor Ayya had to do was to create an atmosphere of fear and suggest that Dalit upstarts threatened the pure bloodlines of incestuous inbreds. It was easy to play the caste card once his people were seized by the panic that no longer would the certainty of grandfather Vanniyar begat father Vanniyar begat son Vanniyar begat grandson Vanniyar hold. It was no country for half-bloods.

Though Tamil Nadu comes at the bottom of the all India list on inter-caste marriages, with less than two per cent of marriages taking place between Dalits and non-Dalits, the state faring marginally better than J&K and Rajasthan, Doctor Ayya was quick to launch his war on the global terror named Inter-caste Love. Although he was arrested for challenging the Jayalalitha government and daring the police to prove if it was possible to imprison him, his hate speech did not subside. Upon his release from prison, he squabbled about everything that made the Dalit male attractive. Jeans and sunglasses. T-shirts and cellphones. Tamil cinema and film songs. He pictured them as being actors in love dramas, referred to inter-caste unions as staged marriages, and repeated his earlier allegations that they were being coached by their leaders into this love mission. His concept of men on the prowl might have unintentionally advertised their desirability—smooth/ suave/ sexy—but his plan paid dividends. Untouchability, outlawed under the Constitution, was back in business. It has burnt villages, killed young people and recently cobbled up a non-Dalit (read anti-Dalit) caucus of intermediary castes like Gounders, Kallars, Udayars, Yadavas, Mudaliars, Naidus, Nadars and Reddys to work alongside the Vanniyars. Their two common demands—ban on inter-caste marriages and an abrogation of the Prevention of Atrocities Against sc/st Act—gave away their true agenda of upholding untouchability.

Dabbling in his Doctor Jekylldom, Ramadoss did not stop with the external threat of the Dalit male. Zeroing in, he has spotted an enemy within his own fold. Even his mask of sophistication does not hide his visceral hatred of the very idea of women's independence. As caste can be protected only by controlling the bodies of women, they are ordered to be put under an adequate safety and surveillance regimen. To these caste fanatics, women's sexuality is the equivalent of one hundred and eight million megatons of tnt, worse than Hiroshima, worse than the hydrogen bomb. Simultaneously seen as volatile and explosive, it's only through caging women that their putatively pure caste lines can be maintained. The intimidation that Divya faced for her marriage, her contrary decision to stay with her mother, her entrapment, all point to the extent to which caste fanatics hold women hostage.

As Tamil Nadu does not harbour either oil reserves or the long-dead Osama, western imperialist powers will turn a blind eye to the fate of Tamil women (and men). No one will call for an intervention, no one will announce a drone attack to safeguard women's rights, or Dalit rights, for that matter. For reasons easily imaginable, even FEMEN will not make the mistake of baring their collective breasts to condemn casteist patriarchy. Courts will make the correct noises and commissions of inquiry will buy time. Before beginning the mandatory class analysis, the Communists will mock, and perhaps rightly so, at the absurdity of the state's institutionalised identity politics. The media, in spite of its new-found feminist avatar, will move on to other stories. Democracy will crack its knuckles, and before long, elections will get everyone busy. What happens to Doctor Ayya? If Tamils remember Periyar's legacy and the Self Respect Movement, they will permanently dismiss him and his party from the public sphere. What happens to the moratorium on inter-caste marriages that deranged caste fanatics seek? Cutting across caste lines, young people must defy the diktats, come forward and lay claim to the life of love that Ilavarasan and Divya were not allowed to live. In these embattled times of caste terror, falling in love is a revolutionary act in itself.

Deccan Chronicle

Natham fast called off

http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/Deccan_Chronicle/400x60/0

Dharmapuri: The villagers of Natham in Dharmapuri, who launched a fast in front of deceased Ilavarasan's house on Friday, withdrew their protest following the high court releasing their advocates on bail.

The hunger protest was against the arrest of his family's advocates on Thursday. The lawyers were among those taken into custody for allegedly defying the prohibitory order clamped after Ilavarasan's death.

On Friday, more than 50 persons, including Ilavarasan's father Ilangovan and his relatives, went on a fast to show their support to the advocates housed in Salem central jail. Ilangovan demanded their release and also lifting of the prohibitory order, which, he alleged, denied the people the right to pay homage to Ilavarasan. They withdrew the protest after coming to know that their lawyers had got bail.

The advocates were arrested after they demonstrated against the police for denying permission to a woman advocate to enter the Dharmapuri government hospital where Ilavarasan's body has been kept since his death on July 4.

They were taken into custody along with Ilangovan and his wife Krishnaveni. The police later dropped the couple in their native village, Natham, while detaining the lawyers under 151 IPC (gathering a crowd despite order to disperse), and then sent her to jail.

Ilavarasan was found dead near the railway track behind Dharmapuri arts college. His body is kept in the hospital mortuary after the post-mortem last Friday. With his family refusing to buy the police's suicide claim and demanding a second autopsy, the body remained in the mortuary awaiting a fresh autopsy by the medical team from the AIIMS, New Delhi, as ordered by the high court.

The Hindu

10 SC students to get education grant

http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0

The Adi Dravida Welfare department in the district is in the process of identifying SC students with SSLC qualification for funding their higher secondary education in institutions of their choice.

Every year, 10 SC students with high scores in SSLC are chosen based on their economic backwardness. Thirteen students were interviewed on Wednesday and after assessing another batch of students, 10 among them would be selected, the Adi Dravida Welfare Officer Senthamarai said.

Under the scheme meant for students of corporation, municipal, government, and Adi Dravidar and tribal welfare schools, a beneficiary would be provided a maximum of Rs.28,000 per annum towards school and hostel fee.

The schools could be in the same district the student belongs to or any other district in Tamil Nadu.

In recent years, SC students with sound academic performance had chosen select government-aided schools, including Bishop Heber Boys' Higher Secondary School and Seva Sangam Girls' Higher Secondary School, besides some private schools for pursuing their higher secondary education, Ms.Senthamarai said. "Students with scores in the range of 470 and 480 out of 500 are being considered for the benefit."

The New Indian Express

OBCs, SC/STs get CM's attention

http://newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/OBCs-SCSTs-get-CM%E2%80%99s-attention/2013/07/13/article1681550.ece

With Chief Minister Siddaramaiah being the face of the Ahinda movement, minorities, backward classes and SC/STs have got enormous attention in his eighth Budget.

He has announced his pet project, a caste-wise social and educational survey through the Permanent Backward Classes Commission. As per Siddaramaiah's pre-budget estimates, this project is likely to cost Rs 60 crore.

The Budget he presented on Friday, however, has earmarked Rs 5,046 crore for the welfare of the Ahinda sector, up from the Rs 4,698 crore that his predecessor Jagadish Shettar had announced in February. The allocation includes the waiver of loans taken by the SC/STs, other backward castes and the minorities in the state-owned development corporations.

There are four projects for his community, the Kurubas. About 1,000 students from the community will be coached to write competitive exams. Community members will get loans at 4 percent interest to start sheep rearing or weaving activities, along with a subsidy of `1 lakh. If sheep die due to illness or accidents, each one gets Rs 3,000. He has also announced a Rs 5-crore grant for the Sangolli Rayanna Pratishtana, in the name of the freedom fighter who hailed from the Kuruba community. Overall, if the SC/STs get Rs 3,001 crore, the OBCs get Rs 1,369 crore while the minorities get Rs 676 crore, including Rs 100 crore under a vague category called 'Christian community development.'

Minority Welfare and Backward Classes office are to be opened in all taluk headquarters. He also announced enhanced prize amount of Rs 7,000 for SC/ST students who score more than 60 percent in SSLC and Rs15,000 for those who score more than 75 percent.

He has also formulated a food and residential assistance scheme in which Rs 15,000 per year to over 20,000 students belongs to the OBCs.

Siddaramaiah announced that state post-matric scholarship to be given to OBC students, on par with the Union Government. These cover all the categories mentioned in the latest Backward Classes Commission report, including the Vokkaligas and Lingayats.

The CM has provided Rs 165 crore towards the disbursement of all pending arrears of the merit scholarship due to the OBCs. Further, he has enhanced the creamy layer limit of backward classes from the present income ceiling of Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh. A Rs 6.5-crore remedial coaching scheme for the minorities and 86 new hostels have also been announced.

He has also allocated Rs 50 crore for the welfare of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, along with Rs 25 crore for Golla community. Former Backward Classes Commission chairman C S Dwarkanath said: "I'm really happy with the Budget."

There is also a Rs 5-crore scheme for the Vishwakarma Development Corporation for financial assistance to artisans. Vishwakarma Samaj president K P Nanjundi said: "This is very good and will help backward community to foster." A new scheme has been designed for financial assistance for the marriages of girls in minority communities. The Jain community gets Rs 10 crore.

A district-level task force will be set up to protect wakf properties. Also, Rs 1 crore has been allocated for creating infrastructure facilities at pilgrim places of Muslims. Rs 10 crore has been allocated for construction of Haj House.

The Times Of India

Tears flow at farewell for senior high court judge

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Tears-flow-at-farewell-for-senior-high-court-judge/articleshow/21048247.cms

CHENNAI: It was a tear-laced farewell for Justice Elipe Dharma Rao, who is to retire on July 14, marking the end of an eventful and hectic 14-year tenure as judge of two high courts.

From a barefooted student doubling up as an agricultural worker in an Andhra Pradesh village, he came a long way to retire as the senior-most dalit judge in the country. "I hail from a village without even bare minimum facilities. I had to walk barefoot to reach school and return home. During 'leisure time' I worked as an agricultural labourer. It has taught me the true sense and meaning of life," he said, responding to encomiums heaped on him by Tamil Nadu advocate general A L Somayaji.

Turning nostalgic, Justice Dharma Rao apologized to his family members "for not sparing any time for them." He paid glowing tributes to his wife Padma Pushpanjali and said: "I will be failing in my duty if I do not mention the sacrifices made by my better half in taking the entire family burdens on her shoulders. She never ventured to disturb me with family issues, however serious they may be, when I am engaged in my duties as judge. She has managed all the family affairs single-handedly at the cost of her health to make my long stint as a judge happy and contented. So far, I have done little to reciprocate. But, hereafter I shall try to make amends to her during the rest of my life."

As for his children, he said from their childhood onwards "they understood that my shoulders are not free for them to play, but already burdened with the godly affair of rendering justice. They never distorted my attention. I missed them a lot, and it is time to say my sincere apologies to them."

Earlier, Somayaji said Justice Dharma Rao had been endowed with a supreme knack of getting at the core issue in any litigation even if papers ran into several volumes. He has a splendid memory of case law and junior members of the Bar were always treated with courtesy and generosity by the judge, he said.

During his tenure here, several sensational judgments including the one relating to elephant corridor and ban on tourist homes/resorts inside the tiger reserve in the Nilgiris, were delivered by him. If north Chennai is dust-free, it has to thank Justice Dharma Rao, as he had barred the Chennai port from handling dusty cargo such as coal and iron ore. Through his verdicts he ordered cast-based census, and called upon cops not to cross the 'Lakshman Rekha' and indulge in extra-judicial killings.

Dharma Rao was born on July 15, 1951 at Karpa village in Ainavali Mandal in East Godavadi district of Andhra Pradesh. He obtained his BL degree in 1978, and was made an additional judge of the Andhra Pradesh high court on May 17, 1999. He was transferred to the Madras high court in January 2006. He was acting chief justice of the Madras high court twice - from April 29, 2010 to June 10, 2010, and from December 22, 2012 to February 6, 2013. With his retirement, the number of judges in the court has gone down to 43, as against the sanctioned strength of 60.

News Monitor by Girish Pant

--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
...................................................................
Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.

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Dalits Media Watch - News Updates 13.07.13

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