posted October 22, 2009 08:34 PM         

Human rights abuses against these people, known as Dalits, are legion. A random sampling of headlines in mainstream Indian newspapers tells their story: "Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers"; "Dalit tortured by cops for three days"; "Dalit 'witch' paraded naked in Bihar"; "Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool"; "7 Dalits burnt alive in caste clash"; "5 Dalits lynched in Haryana"; "Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked"; "Police egged on mob to lynch Dalits".

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"Dalits are not allowed to drink from the same wells, attend the same temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls," said Smita Narula, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, and author of Broken People: Caste Violence Against India's "Untouchables." Human Rights Watch is a worldwide activist organization based in New York.

India's Untouchables are relegated to the lowest jobs, and live in constant fear of being publicly humiliated, paraded naked, beaten, and raped with impunity by upper-caste Hindus seeking to keep them in their place. Merely walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a life-threatening offense.

Nearly 90 percent of all the poor Indians and 95 percent of all the illiterate Indians are Dalits, according to figures presented at the International Dalit Conference that took place May 16 to 18 in Vancouver, Canada.

Crime Against Dalits

Statistics compiled by India's National Crime Records Bureau indicate that in the year 2000, the last year for which figures are available, 25,455 crimes were committed against Dalits. Every hour two Dalits are assaulted; every day three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered, and two Dalit homes are torched.

No one believes these numbers are anywhere close to the reality of crimes committed against Dalits. Because the police, village councils, and government officials often support the caste system, which is based on the religious teachings of Hinduism, many crimes go unreported due to fear of reprisal, intimidation by police, inability to pay bribes demanded by police, or simply the knowledge that the police will do nothing.

"There have been large-scale abuses by the police, acting in collusion with upper castes, including raids, beatings in custody, failure to charge offenders or investigate reported crimes," said Narula.

That same year, 68,160 complaints were filed against the police for activities ranging from murder, torture, and collusion in acts of atrocity, to refusal to file a complaint. Sixty two percent of the cases were dismissed as unsubstantiated; 26 police officers were convicted in court.

Despite the fact that untouchability was officially banned when India adopted its constitution in 1950, discrimination against Dalits remained so pervasive that in 1989 the government passed legislation known as The Prevention of Atrocities Act. The act specifically made it illegal to parade people naked through the streets, force them to eat feces, take away their land, foul their water, interfere with their right to vote, and burn down their homes.

Since then, the violence has escalated, largely as a result of the emergence of a grassroots human rights movement among Dalits to demand their rights and resist the dictates of untouchability, said Narula.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0602_030602_untouchables.html

Lack of Enforcement, Not Laws

Enforcement of laws designed to protect Dalits is lax if not non-existent in many regions of India. The practice of untouchability is strongest in rural areas, where 80 percent of the country's population resides. There, the underlying religious principles of Hinduism dominate.

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* Bushmen Driven From Ancestral Lands in Botswana
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* Change Slow for Afghan Women
* Q&A: Actor Danny Glover on Africa Activism

Hindus believe a person is born into one of four castes based on karma and "purity"—how he or she lived their past lives. Those born as Brahmans are priests and teachers; Kshatriyas are rulers and soldiers; Vaisyas are merchants and traders; and Sudras are laborers. Within the four castes, there are thousands of sub-castes, defined by profession, region, dialect, and other factors.

Untouchables are literally outcastes; a fifth group that is so unworthy it doesn't fall within the caste system.

Although based on religious principles practiced for some 1,500 years, the system persists today for economic as much as religious reasons.

Because they are considered impure from birth, Untouchables perform jobs that are traditionally considered "unclean" or exceedingly menial, and for very little pay. One million Dalits work as manual scavengers, cleaning latrines and sewers by hand and clearing away dead animals. Millions more are agricultural workers trapped in an inescapable cycle of extreme poverty, illiteracy, and oppression.

Although illegal, 40 million people in India, most of them Dalits, are bonded workers, many working to pay off debts that were incurred generations ago, according to a report by Human Rights Watch published in 1999. These people, 15 million of whom are children, work under slave-like conditions hauling rocks, or working in fields or factories for less than U.S. $1 day.

Crimes Against Women

Dalit women are particularly hard hit. They are frequently raped or beaten as a means of reprisal against male relatives who are thought to have committed some act worthy of upper-caste vengeance. They are also subject to arrest if they have male relatives hiding from the authorities.

A case reported in 1999 illustrates the toxic mix of gender and caste.

A 42-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped and then burnt alive after she, her husband, and two sons had been held in captivity and tortured for eight days. Her crime? Another son had eloped with the daughter of the higher-caste family doing the torturing. The local police knew the Dalit family was being held, but did nothing because of the higher-caste family's local influence.

There is very little recourse available to victims.

A report released by Amnesty International in 2001 found an "extremely high" number of sexual assaults on Dalit women, frequently perpetrated by landlords, upper-caste villagers, and police officers. The study estimates that only about 5 percent of attacks are registered, and that police officers dismissed at least 30 percent of rape complaints as false.

The study also found that the police routinely demand bribes, intimidate witnesses, cover up evidence, and beat up the women's husbands. Little or nothing is done to prevent attacks on rape victims by gangs of upper-caste villagers seeking to prevent a case from being pursued. Sometimes the policemen even join in, the study suggests. Rape victims have also been murdered. Such crimes often go unpunished.

Thousands of pre-teen Dalit girls are forced into prostitution under cover of a religious practice known as devadasis, which means "female servant of god." The girls are dedicated or "married" to a deity or a temple. Once dedicated, they are unable to marry, forced to have sex with upper-caste community members, and eventually sold to an urban brothel.

Resistance and Progress

Within India, grassroots efforts to change are emerging, despite retaliation and intimidation by local officials and upper-caste villagers. In some states, caste conflict has escalated to caste warfare, and militia-like vigilante groups have conducted raids on villages, burning homes, raping, and massacring the people. These raids are sometimes conducted with the tacit approval of the police.

In the province Bihar, local Dalits are retaliating, committing atrocities also. Non-aligned Dalits are frequently caught in the middle, victims of both groups.

"There is a growing grassroots movement of activists, trade unions, and other NGOs that are organizing to democratically and peacefully demand their rights, higher wages, and more equitable land distribution," said Narula. "There has been progress in terms of building a human rights movement within India, and in drawing international attention to the issue."

In August 2002, the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD) approved a resolution condemning caste or descent-based discrimination.

"But at the national level, very little is being done to implement or enforce the laws," said Narula.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0602_030602_untouchables_2.html

Reincarnation and Oppression

The worst use of religious authority to subjugate people is the caste system of India and the Hindu tenet of reincarnation. The idea of reincarnation has entered US beliefs along with other elements of Eastern religion, such as Zen and Tantra. It also appears in Plato's myth of Er. But the idea of reincarnation has had its biggest effect in India. There, the point of reincarnation is to support Hinduism's oppressive caste system.

The Brahmins may not have been the worst priests ever. The Aztec priests, with their bloodthirsty sacrifices, may take that honor. But the Aztec priests ruled a small number of people for a short period of time compared to the Brahmins. In terms of scope, if not intensity, the Brahmins have been the worst.

Aryans imposed the caste system on the native Indians when they invaded and conquered the subcontinent. The caste system divided the social superiors into the three classes typical of Aryan culture: priests, warriors, and commoners. You see the same divisions in medieval Europe. The natives, however, make up a fourth caste, the darker-skinned shudras, born into lives of servitude. These four groups are known as varnas, each composed of numerous castes. A fifth group, outcasts, has it even worse.

To lock down the caste system, the priests foisted the idea of reincarnation on the populace. Reincarnation bolsters caste oppression in two ways. It justifies injustice, and it deflects hopes for progress from this life to an imaginary next life.

For the people on top of the caste system, the brahmins, reincarnation justifies why they should enjoy privileges of high-class birth. They must have earned those privileges through virtuous behavior in past lives. A privileged birth proves that one deserves privilege. For the people on the bottom, the shudras and untouchables, reincarnation justifies why they should suffer for their low birth. They must have earned their suffering through sinful acts in past lives. Reincarnation provides an oppressive caste structure with the trappings of a meritocracy.

The idea of reincarnation also tricks low-born Hindus into supporting rather than opposing their own oppression. Hinduism teaches low-caste people that the way to improve their lot in the next life is by leading a virtuous life this time around. Conveniently for those who invented these beliefs, virtue for a low-born Hindu means serving the high-born.

The connection between reincarnation and the caste system shows up in the negative in the attitudes of the Charvakas. The Charvakas were materialist, atheist contemporaries of ancient Hindus and Buddhists. The Charvaka school of thought rejected what the adherents couldn't perceive, which made them immune to the inventions of the priests. They believed in the four material elements (air, earth, fire, and water), but not the fifth (empty space or ether). They discounted both reincarnation and the caste system. It may be that the Charvaka philosophy represents the indigenous belief system, present before the Aryans invaded. Another term for Charvakas is Lokayata, which is translated either as "worldly" or "prevalent among people." The pre-Aryan Harappa culture had no temples, which probably means no priests to tell people to believe something other than what they could perceive for themselves.

Hindu priests aren't the only ones to invent "past life" justifications for real life injustice. For example, Mormons teach that blacks were cursed for their poor showing in the pre-existence. Oppressing blacks was justified until Elohim forgave them in 1978. Similarly, northern Europeans are superios to southern Europeans due to their exemplary lives in the pre-existence.

Hindu priests are also by far not the only ones to invent an afterlife to exercise control over others, especially the common classes. Even today, for example, Catholic bishops threaten to hurt political opponents' afterlives by denying them Communion.

Reincarnation, however, is noteworthy first for bookending the faithful between past and future lives and second for the vast number of people that have suffered under the tenet over the last few thousand years.

Reincarnation makes unfairness seem fair and makes service to the high castes seem like a ticket to being reborn in a higher caste oneself. Supporting India's caste system, the brahmin con job has oppressed more people in history more viciously than any other religious scheme. In its audacity and success, for example, the brahmin deception puts the Catholic sacraments to shame.
http://www.jonathantweet.com/jotrelreincarnat.html

Dalits aka The Untouchables

Dalits- Atrocities
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4YflX4VHFY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQnIlpBAFhQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMVh9l8llq0&feature=related

Reincarnation For The Untouchables
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SepaLxDenIg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt6phVLSV5w&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZXf3BNovpk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuH3NWxfhig&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4W6LYjLrxA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRjR_9wqb0w&feature=related

The Black Untouchables of India http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_playlists&search_query=the+black+untouchables+of+India&uni=1

Raymond

------------------
"Nothing matters absolutely;
the truth is it only matters relatively"

posted October 22, 2009 08:41 PM         

The Dalit Freedom Network is a human rights, non-government organization that partners with the Dalit people in India. We represent a vast network of justice-minded, modern-day abolitionists committed to freedom for India’s “untouchables.” We believe we can end Dalit injustices, such as human trafficking and child labor, and make slavery history in India. Who are the Dalits?
The Solution: Community Transformation

EDUCATION

DFN began in 2002 in response to the plea of Dalit leaders: "Educate our children!" Today a freedom movement is advancing all over India through Dalit Education Centers, where Dalit children learn English and are taught the values of freedom, equality and human dignity. Learn more.

field_economic

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

In debt to landlords, moneylenders, grocers, and more, most Dalits work hand-to-mouth, ground down in horrific poverty. This economic disempowerment forces many into bonded labor and prostitution. Our Vocational Training, Self-Help Groups, and Fair-Rate Loans enable Dalit adults to learn marketable skills and support their families. Learn more.

HEALTHCARE

Most Dalits cannot afford healthcare. Simple fractures go untreated and result in crippling malformations. More than 40% of India's youngest children are malnourished. Dalits also suffer from diseases unseen in developed nations, like polio and leprosy. DFN's comprehensive community-based healthcare program meets immediate needs and is paving the way for sustainability. Learn more.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

DFN is the leading voice of justice for the Dalits in our nation's capital. Focusing on the big-picture of ending the trafficking of Dalits, our education campaigns, legislative work, and continuous advocacy promote justice for the Dalits. Our work with Dalit children and women in India builds hope and enpowerment. Learn more.
http://www.dalitnetwork.org/go?/dfn/index

Who are the Dalits?
The "untouchables."

The Dalits, also called the “untouchables,” “outcastes,” and most recently “slumdogs,” comprise nearly one quarter of India’s society, with population estimates of 250 million people. The term “Dalit” means “those who have been broken and ground down deliberately by those above them in the social hierarchy.” Dalits live at risk of discrimination, dehumanization, violence, and enslavement through human trafficking every day. By all global research and reports, the Dalits constitute the largest number of people categorized as victims of modern-day slavery. http://www.dalitnetwork.org/go?/dfn/who_are_the_dalit/C64

Raymond

------------------
"Nothing matters absolutely;
the truth is it only matters relatively"

posted October 22, 2009 08:43 PM         

DELHI – The United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) recent decision to declare discrimination based on the caste system a “human-rights abuse” – thereby acknowledging centuries of bias against the world’s estimated 200 million Dalits (untouchables) – has evoked a sharp reaction from India.

The UN decision came about despite robust opposition from the Indian government and its aggressive lobbying to get the council to delete the word “caste” from its draft. Instead, the UNHRC is now set to ratify draft principles that recognize persecution of Dalits worldwide.

No other country has opposed the move as vehemently as India. This is because the UNHRC declaration has a special relevance to India and its 65 million Dalits – the largest for any single country.

This sizeable demographic is considered “unclean” in India by the upper castes who regard their presence, and sometimes even their shadow, as polluting. It is in this regard that the UN draft pledges to work for the “effective elimination of discrimination based on work and descent”.

What most weakened India’s case in the UNHRC was Nepal’s acquiescence to the move. Wresting the opportunity, the council has now called on India to follow Nepal’s example even as New Delhi feels this amounts to “international interference” in a sensitive internal matter.

There’s no denying that the issue of Dalits – who occupy the lowest rung of India’s well-entrenched caste pyramid – is a virtual tinderbox in the country. Despite India’s increasing literacy levels, mounting economic wealth and growing geopolitical heft, the benefits of national prosperity haven’t quite percolated down to low-caste Indians, who are ostracized by mainstream society.

Despite over six decades of independence from British rule, Dalits are still discriminated against in all aspect of life in India despite laws specifically outlawing such acts. They are the victims of economic embargos, denied basic human rights such as access to clean drinking water, use of public facilities, education and access to places of worship.

Even constitutional laws, modeled on those framed by the Confederate states in America during the reconstruction period after the Civil War to protect freed black American slaves, have never been enforced by the Indian judiciary and legislature, which are dominated by high castes.

This is indeed ironic as one of this century’s most recognizable global icons – Mahatma Gandhi – was an Indian who crusaded tirelessly against discrimination based on caste or gender. He ensured that the founding fathers of the Indian constitution made special provisions to grant India’s Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Castes special privileges like reservations (up to 33%) in jobs and educational institutes.

So why is there such a hue and cry in India over the UNHRC move? According to experts, the brouhaha has as much to do with politics as with economics and human rights. First, it is not in favor of vested political interests to eliminate the caste system in India as Dalits form a lucrative vote bank. In fact, in a country of a billion-plus population, it would be foolhardy to fritter away this attractive political constituency that dominates large swaths of India.

The prime example is India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh (population: 190 million) which has 403 electoral constituencies. Though there are no official figures available, it is estimated that the country’s largest number of Dalits – probably half – reside here. The results are clear; currently the state is ruled by the powerful Dalit-dominated Bahujan Samaj Party, helmed by its redoubtable chief minister Mayawati, who was ranked by Forbes magazine in 2008 at 59 on its world’s most powerful women list.

In 1995, at age 39, Mayawati was the youngest politician elected to the post of chief minister and was also the first Dalit to head a state government. She may well trail-blaze again as India’s first Dalit prime minister as she goes about building an alliance with India’s Brahmins, augmenting the Dalits’ pan-India footprint. (In June, Meira Kumar was elected the first Dalit woman ever as parliament speaker.)

Still, there’s no denying that Mayawati is more an aberration rather than the rule in India. So will the UNHRC move help get Indian Dalits’ global attention followed by aid from bodies like the European Union? Dr Udit Raj of the Dalit-based Indian Justice Party has welcomed the UN move and feels it will focus the international spotlight on the issue provided the “Indian government has the courage to accept there’s discrimination”.

It is unlikely that a single UN resolution will radically change the landscape of social realities in India. Perhaps even the UNHRC is aware of this fact. Can its declaration be a tool to harass India then? Is it a clever ploy to keep the ambitious country on a leash in view of its abysmal human-rights record? The idea could be to push India to be answerable for discrimination based on work, descent and gender.

Some good has already come out of the UNHRC exercise, albeit indirectly. Rahul Gandhi, the architect of the ruling Congress Party’s general election victory in May, has launched a recent drive to uplift Dalits. He is visiting Dalit homes across Uttar Pradesh and has ordered his party members to recalibrate their welfare programs in favor of Dalits. However, many see the Gandhi scion’s move as a larger political game plan to erode Mayawati’s base in Uttar Pradesh.

In other words, the UNHRC declaration is a sword that will cut both ways for India. While it will definitely focus international attention on the issue – and hopefully lead to increased government spending to improve opportunities for Dalits in the country – it has simultaneously underscored the country’s feudalistic and discriminatory ethos. It is this that India is most sensitive about as it tries to wrest center stage in the new global regime.

Neeta Lal is a widely published writer/commentator who contributes to many reputed national and international print and Internet publications.

(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved
http://www.dalitnetwork.org/go?/dfn/news/uns_caste_declaration_riles_india

UN to treat caste issues as Human Rights violation

If the recent genome study denying the Aryan-Dravidian divide has established the antiquity of caste segregations in marriage, the ongoing session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva looks set to recognize caste-based discrimination as a human rights violation. This, despite India’s opposition and following Nepal’s breaking ranks on the culturally sensitive issue.

Nepal has emerged as the first country from South Asia—the region where untouchability has been traditionally practiced—to declare support for the draft principles and guidelines published by UNHRC four months ago for “effective elimination of discrimination based on work and descent’’—the UN terminology for caste inequities.

In a side-event to the session on September 16, Nepalese minister Jeet Bahadur Darjee Gautam said his county welcomed the idea mooted by the UNHRC document to involve ``regional and international mechanism, the UN and its organs’’ to complement national efforts to combat caste discrimination. This is radically different from India’s stated aversion to the internationalization of the caste problem.

Much to India’s embarrassment, Nepal’s statement evoked an immediate endorsement from the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navanethem Pillay, a South African Tamil. Besides calling Nepal’s support “a significant step by a country grappling with this entrenched problem itself,’’ Pillay’s office said it would “like to encourage other states to follow this commendable example’’.

The reference to India was unmistakable especially since Pillay had pressed the issue during her visit to New Delhi in March. Pillay not only asked India to address “its own challenges nationally, but show leadership in combating caste-based discrimination globally.’’ The granddaughter of an indentured labourer taken to South Africa from a village near Madurai, Pillay recalled that in 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had compared untouchability to apartheid.

Adding to India’s discomfiture, Sweden, in its capacity as the president of the Europeon Union, said, “caste-based discrimination and other forms of discrimination based on work and descent is an important priority for EU.’’ If this issue continues to gather momentum, UNHRC may in a future session adopt the draft principles and guidelines and, to impart greater legal force, send them for adoption to the UN General Assembly.

The draft principles specifically cited caste as one of the grounds on which more than 200 million people in the world suffer discrimination. “This type of discrimination is typically associated with the notion of purity and pollution and practices of untouchability, and is deeply rooted in societies and cultures where this discrimination is practiced,’’ it said.

Though India succeeded in its efforts to keep caste out of the resolution adopted by the 2001 Durban conference on racism, the issue has since re-emerged in a different guise, without getting drawn into the debate over where caste and race are analogous.
http://www.dalitnetwork.org/go?/dfn/news/un_to_treat_caste_issues_as_human_rights_violation

Raymond

------------------
"Nothing matters absolutely;
the truth is it only matters relatively"