kolkatapost: Dalits Media Watch News Updates 15.07.11

MADURAI: A Dalit youth from Melur was recently roughed up and attacked in public by fellow college students when he tried to square off an altercation over the playing of songs between caste Hindu students and Dalits.

Selvam, a Dalit from Indra Nagar of Manapatti village in Kottampatti, is a third-year DEEE student of a college in Sivaganga. To get to his college, he has to commute to Melur to take a connecting bus. On Tuesday, students from a caste Hindu community started playing songs relating to their community leader. Not to be left behind, Dalit students began playing some songs simultaneously on their mobile phones. The resulting cacophony attracted the wrath of the bus conductor, who scolded them.

According to eyewitnesses, Selvam tried to pacify friends from his community and asked them to stop playing songs. But, he was intercepted by caste Hindu students and an altercation followed.

When the bus reached Melur, a group comprising caste Hindus, which had been told to gather by those inside the bus, roughed up Selvam.

The following day, the caste Hindus openly discussed in the bus tackling Selvam if he voiced a protest against the playing of songs. The Dalit youth was soon forced to alight at a bus stop, roughly 2 km ahead of Melur, and was attacked by the caste Hindu students in public. He was stripped of his shirt and suffered internal injuries.

Later, Selvam lodged a complaint with the Kottampatti police and was admitted to the GH in Melur.

Anand, EDof Equal Rights, an NGO, demanded a case to be registered under Section 3 (1) (3) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

When contacted, Superintendent of Police Asra Garg said the complaint and a counter-complaint were received and investigations were on.

Telegraph India

CHANGE FROM BELOW

Dalit theology in the twenty-first century: discordant voices, discerning pathways

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110715/jsp/opinion/story_14235714.jsp

by Sathianathan Clarke and others, Oxford, Rs 745

This book is a collection of essays on various aspects of Dalit theology, especially among Christian Dalits. The uninitiated reader will immediately stumble on the phrase, 'Christian Dalits'. The term, Dalit, has grown out of a protest movement directed at the domination of upper caste Hinduism. Many of those belonging to the lower castes, Dalits, decided to convert to other religions that do not recognize caste. Christianity is one such religion. Thus the question: having converted to Christianity, can a person be marked by a caste status? The editors write very self-consciously in the introduction, "Conscious of the fact that the Indian Christian community is predominantly Dalit and thus, historically, geographically, socially, economically, and culturally entwined with the lived reality of Dalits from other religious communities, this volume collects and promotes a Dalit-based, Dalit-focused, and Dalit-committed set of world visions that represent some features of 21st century theological optics and options.'' This volume straddles two different identities — a caste identity as the emphasis on Dalits in the quotation above makes evident; and a religious identity based on a religion that explicitly denies caste. This is indicative of a major churning within Indian society, a process that is completely refashioning it. This volume reflects that transformation and the ways in which a faith is trying to come to terms with it. This is not an easy book to read. But it is an enriching one.

Zee News

Fourteen injured in dalit-Akali clash

http://zeenews.india.com/news/punjab/fourteen-injured-in-dalit-akali-clash_719659.html

Last Updated: Thursday, July 14, 2011, 13:31

Batala: At least 14 persons were injured on Thursday after dalits and Akalis clashed for more than two hours at a village here, police said.

BSP leader Mohan Singh, who was today nominated as district president of Bhagwan Valmiki Kranti Sena, reached his village Sandalpura, where some of his supporters started raising slogans against Akali sarpanch Harpal Singh, they said.

Singh's supporters rushed to the spot and started raising counter-slogans against the BSP leader which was followed by stone pelting between the two parties, they said.

Being lesser in strength, Harpal Singh's supporters fired at their rivals that left 14 injured (on both sides), they said.

Bhagwan Valmiki Kranti Sena state president Swaran Singh Gill and his colleagues were among the injured.

When contacted, SSP (Batala) Gurdeep Singh said he had sent a police team to investigate into the entire matter. He also assured strict action against those persons who were found guilty. PTI

Counter Current

Tale Of A Village's Struggle For Survival

http://www.countercurrents.org/thervoy140711.htm

By Thervoy youth, women and people's struggle committee

14 July, 2011, Countercurrents.org

Our struggle to retain control over our grazing land, forest, livelihood and bodily integrity

Our village Thervoy Kandigai, Gummidipoondi Taluk, Thiruvallur District, Tamil Nadu (50 km North of Chennai) has 2000 households (majority dalits, the rest belonging to Backward Castes and (a few) Scheduled Tribes). As per number of ration cards there are only 959 households, because some families are joint families. 90% of households have agriculture land which is irrigated through channels from tanks in the village, including seven in the 1127 acres of 'Mekkal Poromboku' (grazing) land. Of the 90% who have land, 70% have less than two acres, 20% have less than 1 acre and 10% have more than 2 acres of land. We take two crops most years and only twice in the last 10 years we have had to harvest one crop. We are employed for 9 months in the year in agriculture because of irrigation (which is now under threat). Only few go out in search of waged work. Roughly 80% of our households have livestock, for which fodder and water comes from the grazing land . Around 1995 a check dam was built by the Forest Department under the Watershed Development Program. The Mekkal Poromboku land hosts seven tanks, and acts as a watershed not only for our village, but neighbouring 24 villages in the same Taluk. Further, it is used by women of our village to collect twigs for fuel, for open defecation (with few households having toilets in the villages) and for menstrual hygiene. It provides us medicinal herbs and fruits during off season (see Box 1 for song of 70 year Naynamma on the use of the Poromobokku land, also referred to as forest land for reasons explained later). The Mekkal Porambokku land is likely a nurturing mother to us. 15 households live in Mekkal Porombokku land and some have planted cashew trees. There is a reserved forest next to the Mekkal Porombokku land.

Till 1824 the Zamindari system was in operation and they were collecting taxes and this 1127 acres of land was classified as patta land with the Zamindar. The Zamindari system was abolished after independence, and there was an attempt to bring this land also under the Land Ceiling Act around 1969. But we fought with the Kannakupillai (Accountant) and later Village Administrative Officer (1977) and ensured that this land was classified as Mekkal Poromoboku or grazing land was under our control and not redistributed as private land.

We have been guarding 1127 acres of grazing lands classified as Mekkal Porombokku land for 200 years. The system is that each house in the village gives two "Marraka" (around 6 kgs) of rice or paddy, and this is used to pay for two watch personsfor looking after the grazing land.

SIPCOT's coming and rationale for our resistance

In 2007, we saw an advertisement in Tamil newspaper Dinathanthi on the upcoming SIPCOT complex stating this this complex will be located on the Mekkal Porombokku land (grazing land of 1127 acres). On 30/1/2007 the Panchayat Raj Institution passed a resolution without Gram Sabha consent stating that that they do not have an objection to the giving away of 32/2 and 33/2 Survey number of Mekkal Porombokku Land to SIPCOT industrial park. We, the village people went and met the Thirvallur District Collector and District Revenue Officer . We knew if such a project emerges it would affect our livestock, agriculture, water, fuel and health security. We had also heard that SIPCOT industrial complexes in Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu was causing health hazards through effluence and had the potential to damage nervous system and kidneys, and, cause heart and eye ailments . We heard from elsewhere that such complexes hardly created employment for local people after the construction phase was over, often did not create much permanent employment for local people, and people from other states were brought in once the construction stage was over. The companies would soon start buying our agriculture land to build houses for employees at higher levels, hotels would come, women would be exploited, and our subaltern dalit culture would get eroded. Equally we were worried what would happen to us, if we moved to cities. For we had seen that immigrants from other states dominated the cites as they were cheaper labour. We would become indebted, pushed into near bonded work in cities while now we are self-employed and lived with dignity. In fact we were informed that between 1998/1999 and 2005/2006 rural landlessness in the state had increased from 59.9% to 64.3% . Rural landlessness was higher in Tamil Nadu than India as a whole. If all rural agriculture land was industrialised what would happen to food and nutrition security? As traditionally we are tillers we were worried about this. Though we are educated in our village, we are interested in agriculture.

Our protest

Three thousand of us fasted in front of the Collector's office in 2007. Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA)belonging to AIADMK KS Vijayakumar supported us at that time. 500 of us went and met the Collector, atleast half of whom were women.

The then Collector Ranvir Prasad agreed that giving away of the Mekkal Porumbokku land was a violation of our right to livelihood and grazing land. The honest Collector Ranvir Prasad was transferred in three days by the DMK regime. Given this set back, 5000 of us went on a fast in the first quarter of 2007, and Edapadi Palaniswamy of AIADMK joined us. This was broadcast on Jaya TV. But the previous regime (DMK) did not change its stand. In the middle of 2007, we approached the National SC/ST Commission The Commission instructed the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Collector and Village PRI President to look into the matter. But no order came to our hand stating that the project was shelved.

On 21/1/2008 an agreement was drafted between Forest Department and PRI (Agreement number 24883 signed by Forest Range Officer and PRI President on 4/2/2008) stating that 250 hectares of the Mekkal Porombokku land (revenue number 32/2. 33/1) would be handed over to the PRI for protection for the year 2008-9 and after 3 to five years a village forest protection committee would be formed which will maintain this 250 hectares of land . That is, as per this agreement the forest still belongs to PRI and the to be formed village forest protection committee . We the Thervoy people still have not received a copy of any order stating this agreement has been cancelled and neither has such a cancellation been discussed in the Gram Sabha.

--
.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.

kolkatapost

BAMCEF UNIFICATION CONFERENCE 7

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Dalits Media Watch News Updates 15.07.11

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