117 Years Old and Still Relevant

Can an aggregator link a post from another aggregator that is linking a post to another blog? Why sure! Bhupinder links a few blogs that celebrate the birthday anniversary of the radical dalit rights activist B.R. Ambedkar, who fought for dalit rights in India and often clashed with (whom he considered) the high-caste elitist Ghandi.

[Hat Tip: Bhupinder]

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Calm Like a Bomb

Arjun Sen, of the blog Rantings of a Gaged Journalist, writes about how the poor in India are a ticking time bomb ready to lash out against the authorities:

That is why even in Left-ruled West Bengal the so-called communists make sure that the administration and the law enforcement agencies protect the interests of the rich rather than the poor, and, to do so, resort to even murder, if necessary. Can you imagine living in a state where the police go about murdering an ordinary law abiding citizen simply because he has gone against the desires of someone who is not just a rich fatso but also has a criminal record to boot? So, a poor law abiding citizen is murdered by the police a few days after his marriage because his rich and criminal father-in-law wanted the police to do so.

Originally linked by Kuffir at Blog Bharti.

Dalit Seminar

A blogger at Teluga Bloggers writes about an upcoming national seminar in India about Dalits and religion:

Religion is one of the problems for Dalits in India. It is the question of its being implicit and explicit, inclusive and exclusive, an insider and outsider for Dalit life. Dalits have been in dilemma as to which religion they have to follow in the Post- Colonial period. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar has made a statement that he will not die as a Hindu. It had an impact on several Dalit Hindus. Moreover, his conversion to Buddhism has influenced thousands of Dalits to follow. However, there may be a few Dalits who are in Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhism, Islam and some others have considered Ambedkarism as one of the religions. The Dalits who are in the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism have constitutional benefits and others who are in Christianity and Islam are denied the same. This could be one of the debates that the seminar is looking forward to address.

Originally linked by Kuffir on Blogbharti.

The Death of Chandrashekhar and Indian Socialist Politics

Bhupinder writes:

Socialist politics, dominated now by such ‘bleeding heart socialists’ like Amar Singh and caste centered politicians like Mulayam, Laloo and BJP’s friends like Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes, has now come to practically a dead end. Acharya Narendra Dev is now a forgotten man altogether. Human Rights and civil liberties organizations that grew in the days of the Emergency are the only reminders of JP. Lohia’s ghost continues to haunt in the form of caste politics (not necessarily bad, but I don’t suppose even Lohia would have conceived of caste politics as an end in itself.)

Caste, Reservations, and a Divided India

Shivam Vij comments on the latest caste based violence in Rajasthan by quoting B.R. Ambedkar:

The literature of the Hindus is full of caste genealogies in which an attempt is made to give a noble origin to one caste and an ignoble origin to other castes. The Sahyadrikhand is a notorious instance of this class of literature. This anti-social spirit is not confined to caste alone. It has gone deeper and has poisoned the mutual relations of the sub-castes as well. In my province the Golak Brahmins, Deorukha Brahmins, Karada Brahmins, Palshe Brahmins and Chitpavan Brahmins, all claim to be subdivisions of the Brahmin Caste. But the anti-social spirit that prevails between them is quite as marked and quite as virulent as the anti-social spirit that prevails between them and other non-Brahmin castes. There is nothing strange in this. An antisocial spirit is found wherever one group has “interests of its own” which shut it out from full interaction with other groups, so that its prevailing purpose is protection of what it has got. This antisocial spirit, this spirit of protecting its own interests is as much a marked feature of the different castes in their isolation from one another as it is of nations in their isolation.

Language and Class

Madhat, a blogger from Bangolore, writes about a video he saw at a charity/theatre event in India in his blog My life, my words:

I noticed something interesting in the video. The founder and some other people who looked to be members of the board (they were mostly businessmen) spoke to the camera in English but the testimonials of the kids were in Kannada with English subtitles! Now why is that?

…

The elite, the rich and the upper class are the ones who have access to good english education and the lower class can converse only in the local language. Balraj Sahni was right. English is the new Sanskrit.

In Solidarity: Sanhati

Rama quotes a mission statement from the West Bengali activist organization Sanhati in the blog Cuckoo’s call:

We are voices of dissent. We oppose the murderous politics of the state government of West Bengal as well as the cheap populism of otherwise pro-liberalism parties. We stand in solidarity, in Sanhati, with all forces that oppose police terror in Bengal and the inhuman urban-industrial vision. We staunchly defend the rights of tillers over their lives and their lands.

BJP “Feminists”

Krish blogs about the hypocrisy of calling oneself a feminist and being a member of the ultra-nationalistic BJP party in India in his blog Krishworld Politics:

I have come across many Indian women who claim that they are out there in the world to eradicate male chauvinism. The same women (who are from the privileged castes of the society) support BJP unabashedly. I find this highly hypocritical. I have high regard for real feminists. But I consider these pseudo-feminists as the cheapest group of people. BJP is a party which considers Rama to be the gold standard. Rama, the last time I heard about him, made his wife walk through fire to prove her “purity”. It seems he did that to shut the mouths of people who, in their own male chauvinistic way, questioned the “purity” of Sita.

BJP “Feminists”

Krish blogs about the hypocrisy of calling oneself a feminist and being a member of the ultra-nationalistic BJP party in India in his blog Krishworld Politics:

I have come across many Indian women who claim that they are out there in the world to eradicate male chauvinism. The same women (who are from the privileged castes of the society) support BJP unabashedly. I find this highly hypocritical. I have high regard for real feminists. But I consider these pseudo-feminists as the cheapest group of people. BJP is a party which considers Rama to be the gold standard. Rama, the last time I heard about him, made his wife walk through fire to prove her “purity”. It seems he did that to shut the mouths of people who, in their own male chauvinistic way, questioned the “purity” of Sita.

Someone Else’s Problem

N. (from Bangolore, India) blogs about an encounter she had with a publisher from a feminist publishing house in her blog Noah’s Ark Broken:

I find it disturbing that the representative of a feminist publishing house is not clear about what feminism means, not to the world at large but even just to them. That she gets defensive about the word ‘feminist’. That three other writers with her believe that “women like us” don’t have “such problems” therefore, women like us don’t have to write about them. I find it especially disturbing because it reflects a trend that is common among urban educated women from upper middle class families in India. Feminism is passe. Feminism is uncool. And mostly, it is Somebody Else’s Problem.

Originally linked by Bhupinder at Blog Bharti.

Someone Else’s Problem

N. (from Bangolore, India) blogs about an encounter she had with a publisher from a feminist publishing house in her blog Noah’s Ark Broken:

I find it disturbing that the representative of a feminist publishing house is not clear about what feminism means, not to the world at large but even just to them. That she gets defensive about the word ‘feminist’. That three other writers with her believe that “women like us” don’t have “such problems” therefore, women like us don’t have to write about them. I find it especially disturbing because it reflects a trend that is common among urban educated women from upper middle class families in India. Feminism is passe. Feminism is uncool. And mostly, it is Somebody Else’s Problem.

Originally linked by Bhupinder at Blog Bharti.

Savagery at Salwan

Shivam Vij, a journalist based out of Dehli, posts an article he did on the sacking of the Dalit (Untouchable) settlements of Salwan in his blog National Highway:

The long road from Karnal city that leads to Pardeep’s village, Salwan, showcases some of rural India’s prosperous best. Spring is in the air and after every other wheat and mustard field there is a river body. Farmers proudly walk around fields with their women whose veils hide even their eyes. There are pucca houses and modern tractors and mobile phone towers. But there is a high-voltage line of caste not visible to the naked eye. If anyone steps on it, it can electrocute an entire village.