Dalit News from Kerala

Two killed in police firing to quell caste clashes in south
Tamil Nadu
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Two-killed-in-police-firing-to-quell-caste-clashes-in-south-TN/articleshow/9944841.cms

RAMANATHAPURAM: Two persons were killed inpolice firing in Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram district in caste-sensitive south Tamil Nadu while several others including senior police officials were injured in stone pelting incidents that lead to the firing on Sunday afternoon.

One more person is feared to be killed in the incident. In Madurai too police opened fire to disperse a crowd of protestors demanding the release of John Pandian, founder of Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, who was detained on the way to Paramakudi to participate in the 54th memorial day observation of Immanuel Sekaran, a dalit leader.

The detention of John Pandian sparked an immediate agitation by dalits who thronged Paramakudi for the memorial and turned violent moments later. The dalits, who staged a protest, soon started pelting stones on the police injuring Ramanathapuram DIG Sandeep Mittal and deputy commissioner of police K A Senthilvelan prompting the police to open fire. Two men among the agitators died on the spot.

As the news of the firing and the death spread more dalits started converging at the spot fuelling further unrest. Police had cordoned off the entire district and stopped vehicles at the entry points of the district to prevent escalation of violence. About 5,000 such vehicles that brought dalits from across the state are lined up outside the district.

Police said that many police vehicles were damaged and set on fire by a mob. “We are not even able to go near the memorial, the epicentre of the violent incidents now,” said a police official. The firing occurred around 1 pm at a distance of about one km from the memorial of Immanuel Sekaran. The bodies of the victims are now with the agitators, police said, adding that no women were injured in the firing.

In Madurai, two persons were injured in a police firing at Chintamani area. The firings have sparked tension in the entire southern Tamil Nadu and heavy posse of police have been posted at sensitive spots.
R.Prakash
Post Box # 46,Mavelikara-690101
Kerala,India.
Mob- +91 99 46 75 71 78 / +91 8907704079

Ayyankali , the Great Reformist Leader from Scheduled caste,

Ayyankali (1863–1941) was a leader of the Indian lower caste Dalits known as theUntouchables. He pioneered many reforms to improve the lives of the Dalits. In 1937 he was praised by Mahatma Gandhi when he visited Venganoor, Ayyankali’s home town. In November 1980, Indira Gandhi unveiled sculptor Ezra David’s commorative statue of Ayyankali at Kowdiarsquare, in Trivandrum.[1]

Ayyankali was born in 1863 in Venganoor, Trivandrum, Travancore. He was one of seven children born to a Pulaya family. He was illiterate as were all Dalits at that time. In those days Dalits were not allowed to walk along public roads. The Dalit women were not allowed to cover their breasts in public places. Ayyankali organized Dalits and fought against these discriminations.

He was in the forefront of movements against casteism. He passed through the public roads of Venganoor on a bullock cart which was not allowed for the Dalits. Enraged by his boldness, the caste Hindus physically attacked him. Ayyankali led the movement and defeated them. Ayyankali demanded right for Dalit children to study in school, which was not granted. He started a school to teach dalit children at Venganoor which was set ablaze by caste Hindus. In response to this, in 1907 he led a strike at Venganoor which lasted for more than a year. He called for boycott of agricultural work raising certain demands. His demands included (a) stoppage of the practice of not giving tea in tea shops to Dalits who were given tea till then in coconut shells; (b) right to education for the Dalit children; (c) resting time for workers during work hours; and (d) replacement of the system of wages in kind by payment of cash. Initially the[2]( Members of the Nair caste which was one of the upper caste in Kerala) and other caste Hindus did not take it seriously. They tried many means and methods to defeat the workers. However they realized that their families would starve to death if Ayyankali’s demands were not met with. They, therefore, were forced to concede the demands of Ayyankali and his supporters.

The significance of Ayyankali lies in the fact that he could spearhead a struggle for human rights of the untouchables raising demands which find expressions in various international human rights documents well before their adoption. He pioneered a movement for democratizing public places and asserting the rights of workers even before the formation of any workers organisation in Kerala. The most amazing part of it is that he did all this in spite of his illiteracy. No wonder that Ayyankali was later nominated to the assembly of Travancore namely, Sri Moolam Legislative Assembly, in 1910 by the then rulers in recognition of his leadership ability. In his efforts Ayyankali also received the support of his great contemporary Sree Narayana Guru and other social reformers. By 1900 Dalits were given the freedom to walk on the public roads, and by 1914, Dalit children were allowed to join schools. Also, Dalit women were allowed to cover their nakedness in public through his efforts.[1]

He is such a dynamic person that he could gather support for his cause even from the members of upper caste community as well as some prominent land lords who were members of Praja Sabha during his time.

Elders of Pulaya community in Kuttanadu still cherish the memory of ”the Panthi Bhojanam” organized by a prominent land lord and the then member of Praja Sabha from Kuttanad, Pallithanam Luca Matthai(Pallithanathu Matthaichen).During those times Lukka Mathai was fondly referred to by the local flock as the Kayal Raja of Kuttanadu.Though he belonged to an aristocratic and orthodox Syrian Christian family, Luka Mathai actively supported Ayyankali in his efforts in eradicating the social inequalities that were prevalent in the Kerala society.

He received Ayyankali and his followers, with a grant procession of snake boats and hundreds of other boats to his Nalukettu Tharavad and had lunch with them. Many other prominent people from the upper castes also participated in that function proclaiming their protest against casteism.

Ayyankali founded the Sadhujana Paripalana Sangham (Association for the Welfare of the Poor) in 1905, which succeeded in obtaining a six-day week for agricultural laborers. Ayyankali died on June 18, 1941.

[edit]Contribution and influence in Society

The thoughts of Ayyyankali has influenced different sects of the society. The Chief Minister of Kerala had remarked his contribution and has compared with Narayana Guru.[3] He is specially remembered on his birth anniversary[4] by different sections of the society.[5]

Ayyankali disappeared from public memory for quite some time. It took about 40 years to evaluate his service to society. Speaking on March 1980 at the Kumaran Asan Memorial Lecture, Comrade EMS Namboodirippadu spoke about the historical agricultural labour strike of 1907 led by Ayyankali thus:

"…in 1907-8 Ayyankali organised the agricultural workers’ strike. He brought together the unorganised and splintered people and made them conscious of organisational power." (Asan & Malayala Literature, pp 54.)

With the efforts of KK Balakrishnan, PK Chathan Master, KP Madhavan etc., a trust named ‘Sri Ayyankali Trust’ was born. A life size bronze statue of Ayyankali, sculpted with love and affection by Ezra David (who also made Krishna Menon Statue in Delhi), travelled all the way from Madras through the length of Kerala in a victory procession. Newspapers vied with one another to highlight the event. The open hearted Keralites lined the road sides and paid homage to the ‘victor over fate’:

"…where the chariot of history etched indelible marks of monarchy and upper caste oppression.." and was unveiled in the traffic island at Vellayambalam junction by the Prime Minister of India on 10 November 1980. (Kerala Kaumudi, 11 Nov ’80)

Vellayambalam Junction is in an elite Nair upper middle class area. It is at the meeting point of roads from the Kaudiyar Palace and Padmanabha Swamy Temple. The Maharaja has to pass Ayyankali Statue on the way to and back from the temple for his regular prayers.

Kerala Kaumudi Paper, run by Sree Narayanaguru devotee K Kartikeyan wrote about the unveiling "a statue of the unforgettable revolutionary of Kerala."

When the prime minister Mrs Indira Gandhi spoke that…

"He is the outcome of his people’s enthusiasm for equality. This great son of India was the one who sacrificed his life for the well being of his society. His qualities were to too great to be contained in Kerala only. His ideas and ideals are still valid. That is the reason why I offered to unveil this statue. I am against setting up of statues in principle. So I have declined invitations to unveil statues."

"Untouchability is a deep blemish in the sould of India. It is only untouchability that has kept India backward so far. And it was in Kerala that untouchability was most acute. At the same time it was Kerala that gained fame by its Temple entry proclamation. Equality and Freedom are indivisible. Without equality there can not be genuine freedom. Our leaders fought against the evil of untouchability. It was through leaders like Mahatma Gandhi that the toughest battle against untouchability were fought. The struggle for freedom must start from within the society. That was what Ayyankali did. It was due to incessant struggles of Gandhi, Ambedkar and Ayyankali that the landless poor (harijans) were liberated." (Kerala Kaumudi, 11 Nov ’80)

EK Nayanar, the chief minister of Kerala spoke thus on the occasion called Ayyankali, "the first leader of people led liberation and revolution."

"If singing praises of Ayyankali and unveiling of his statue is to have any meaning, allotment of land for the tenants and pension for agricultural labour is a must. Ayyankali was not only a leader of his own community but also an unshakeable guide and commander of the working classes. Ayyankali and Sree Narayan Guru, by their anti caste domination struggles were important factors that led Kerala people to their progressive outlook today.

"Only Kerala has been delivered of mass murder of the poor and burning of their villages in the country. That is because of the social reconstruction through revolutionary changes. Rajaram Mohan Roy, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Dayananda Saraswati, Vivekanand etc were Ayyankali’s contemporaries. Unlettered Ayyankali was a totally different kind of player in the same league. Perhaps he was the greatest leader of that particular period.

"This ‘mahapurush’ organised his people for gaining social justice and human rights into a body named ‘Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangham’ in 1907. Sensibly led by Ayyankali, the organisation gained whatever social changes it could for all to see.

"It was his organisational genius that left its indelible stamp on the agrarian movements of Kerala which subsequently fell into the hands of Communist Parties." (Kerala Kaumudi, 11 Nov ’80)

Kallada Sasi, a poet who fluttered out of the water logged rice fields of Kerala, wrote in golden letters…

"From this Kurukshetra of multicoloured rose Ayyankali the Heralding Conch."

R.Prakash
Post Box # 46,Mavelikara-690101
Kerala,India.
Mob- +91 99 46 75 71 78 / +91 8907704079

Forwarded message ———-

From: Benjamin Kaila Date: Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 4:57 AM

Subject: My interview in Firstpost.com –

Dear friends, Here is the interview that came in an online magazine firstpost.com. A week ago I got an email requesting for an interview and I responded. I was told that its editor gave my details and asked the journalist to interview me. The interview went more than one and half hours, touching various issues related to my background, childhood, Ambedkar Scholarships, Dr Ambedkar, reservations, comparison between reservations and affirmative action, discrimination in society and educational institutions, laws in India against discrimination, Dalit student suicides, movies and their portrayal of Dalits and many more issues. Please visit this link: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/%e2%80%9ci-don%e2%80%99t-want-to-be-called-a-reservationist%e2%80%9d-dalit-leader-in-u-s-59475.html Here is the journalist’s version of what I said and published: Lagaan did not impress me, it was a stereotype: Dalit leader in US Bernice Yeung Aug 12, 2011 #Aarakshan #B. R. Ambedkar #Benjamin P. Kaila #Dalit #TheInsider Email Share Tweet Comments Benjamin P. Kaila, a Christian Dalit, grew up in poverty in a village near Tenali in Andhra Pradesh. Now a software professional in Southern California, he rallies donors across the world to support the Dalit community in five Indian states. Since 2003 his non-profit Friends for Education International has distributed more than $120,000 in the form of microloans, scholarships and aid to victims of violence. On 20 August, it will celebrate the eighth anniversary of its Ambedkar Scholarship for Dalit children and give out another $20,000. As Aarakshan opens in India amidst controversy about its subject matter, Kaila who has lived in the US since 1999 discusses his view on reservation, US-style affirmative action and whether movies can bring social change. Your foundation started with scholarships for Dalit children. How did that start? School children waiting for their midday meal. Reuters I am a Dalit and I grew up in a small village. I lived all my life poor. I experienced a lot of discrimination in school, workplace, and in society. I was doubly discriminated because I am Christian and Dalit. I have a belief that only education can bring us from that limbo, the state we are in as Dalits. Because my parents were teachers, they gave me a good foundation at an early age. But very few people in my community could aspire to do anything; most were illiterate. Only a few people can afford private education, the rich people. After I graduated from college, I could still not speak a single sentence in English. But I came to learn about Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. I got inspired a lot by him. I started studying about society. That is how I improved my English, by reading books, and by listening to the radio. After reading Dr. Ambedkar, I wanted to start a school in my native place for Dalit children. I came to the US in 1999 on a H-1B visa, and sitting in the US, it is easier for me to monitor a smaller thing versus a school. So in 2003, I started two scholarships in the name of my mother and father, one for a girl and one for a boy. I distributed Rs 5,000, a big amount for Dalit students. After coming to the US, I interacted with Dalits outside of India online, and I became one of the vocal people in those groups. In an email, I said, “I want to do this.” People started coming to me saying, “We will help you.” Slowly, it started, and now we are giving away every year about 10 lakhs. Did you face discrimination when you were living in India? At the age of 10, I experienced a very bad incident. My father was my first teacher and when I was at his school, a school inspector came to my school and he was a so-called upper-caste man. For some reason, I touched him. I don’t know how, but I touched him. He took a cane from my father and in front of him, he beat me like an animal. But my father couldn’t open his mouth because he would lose his job. That is when I came to know we were untouchables. In school, I was not the top-most student but I was one of the best students in the class. But some teachers discouraged me from coming to school. When I worked in Hyderabad, I was a programmer, a respectable position, but it was very difficult for me to get accommodation if I said my caste. In the university, we all look the same, but you are recognised by your surname or your religion. In Andhra Pradesh, most Dalits are Christian so if you say you are Christian, they will say, “He is a Dalit,” and they will start doing their nonsense. What do you think of reservation? India has beautiful laws on the books but they are never implemented. Ambedkar helped write the constitution; he helped enact so many laws that are anti-discriminatory. But still, because the people who are ruling the country don’t want to discourage discrimination, they have never been implemented properly. If the Indian government and Indian leaders implemented the already-enacted laws, these problems will be (solved) easily, but that is not happening. How does American affirmative action compare to reservation? The difference is that American affirmative action is not in the Constitution. In India, Ambedkar put it in the constitution because he knew that the high-caste people don’t want these people to come up. So he instituted reservation. The problem is, who is implementing them? I am a Dalit Christian. If I were a good student and I wanted to go to an engineering college, I could not go because reservation is only for Hindu Dalits. But in our area, Hindu Dalits are labourers and cannot get to college. When I applied for college, I could not get that seat, but there were no other people from my community to apply. So what happened? Those seats are given back. Reservation has not been implemented properly so far. They have not been implemented in the way that Ambedkar imagined, when he enshrined them in the Constitution for 10 years. What he expected was that within 10 years, leaders would see to it that Dalits received education, discrimination would be gone, and we would be on par with others and there would be no more need for reservation. What the current leaders are doing is they are not implementing them in the proper way but they are extending them forever. What policy reforms do you suggest? Benjamin Kaila on his visit to India. Photo from the Friends for Education International website. A lot of things can be done. Right now, there are two types of education: private and government. If you are poor, you go to a government school and afterward, you can’t read or write to standard. What I say is give them equal opportunity. Provide hostel facilities where they can live and study, and financial aid to people who are from below the poverty line, so that there are incentives for parents to send their children to school instead of going to earn money. These are resource intensive, but still, if the government wants to, there are so many things it can do. Who would ask for reservation if we were all given an equal education? Do you think reservation should end? I don’t want to be called a reservationist. I don’t want to beg anyone for a seat. Reservation should go, but before it goes, they should be implemented properly and after a certain time, you can eliminate them. But if reservation goes now, they will have to go back to the fields and to beg because that is all there is. What do you think of the critiques that reservations are unfair because society should be based on merit? Merit can only happen between equals. If a person doesn’t have food and has to go to the field to feed its family, and goes to school only for the midday meal, you cannot compare that person with another person who has everything, who can go to school and to college. You have to give both of them equal opportunities, and then you can talk about merit. Do you support reservation in the private sector in India? Because, in India they don’t give us any other opportunity, we are looking for reservation; it is the only way a few people can come up in life. After liberalization, government jobs are eroding. There is only reservation for government jobs, but there are no jobs, so what is the use of reservation? Especially the Manmohan Singh government is selling the public sector to the private sector, and there is no other way for us than to ask for reservation in the private sector. A critique of US affirmative action is that it sometimes benefits those who don’t need the help the most. Do you think the same is happening in India with reservation? Yes. Reservation is being used by the top-level of people. That is not correct. Once you come up in life and you are a managing director or an IAS officer and your children are going for reservation, that is not good. It is limiting the people who really require reservation. There are a few seats reserved for Dalits, and most Dalits are illiterate. If you take, for example, some of these fields like the financial sector or journalism, you don’t see a single Dalit. So whoever is attempting to enter into these positions are the children of top-level Dalit executives. In India it is called the creamy layer. But if we eliminate the creamy layer, what happens is all of those seats go vacant and they are converted back to a general category. It’s a very confusing thing. So what I say is, there should be a balance. The creamy layer should get the seat in certain situations, but if you are from the creamy layer, and there is someone below you, then they should be given preference. Is there caste-based discrimination within the Indian-American community? Caste is luggage we always carry. Some people feel proud that they are of the same caste. Some feel inferior, like Dalits here, we try to hide our caste. Once it’s exposed, we can be discriminated against among other Indians. Don’t misunderstand me—there are good people here, and all are not like that. As we have the second generation and third generation here, they will be more tolerant. Do you think films like “Aarakshan,” which touches on the issues we’ve been talking about, will help spark more dialogue? Everybody goes to the movie theater. If social things are projected in a proper perspective, there will definitely be a lot of change. But again, filmmakers, who are they? They are from the upper-caste communities, therefore they show whatever they want, according to their ideologies. In some movies, Dalits are ridiculed. “Lagaan,” which competed for an Oscar, did not impress me. It was a stereotype of Dalits. There may be a different person, a progressive person who will take it in a different way but so far, I have never seen Dalits projected in a positive way. But if you have good intentions, and want real change, movies are one of the best mediums to get to the masses. Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the state in which Kaila attended university. It is Andhra Pradesh, not Uttar Pradesh. Firstpost regrets the error. Forwarded by R.Prakash Post Box # 46,Mavelikara-690101 Kerala,India. Mob- +91 99 46 75 71 78 / +91 8907704079

Is social networking building Internet’s caste system?

http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/is-social-networking-building-internet%E2%80%99s-caste-system-76240.html

Ah! To be an internet user in the 90s. When modern browsers introduced us to webpages and hyperlinks. Click, click click and you were away, connecting random things. Girlie pictures, right click to download. Football scores I know the address. Email, done in minutes.

No pressure really. If you could log on, you could be online. No one knew who you were, and really no one cared.

How could the net just meander along like this, asked the Internet gods? Soon people will get bored. Let’s throw in some complexity, they said.

And Google was born. Out of a paper that Larry Page wrote. With Page Rank, Google’s algorithm for ranking pages, we started to see changes in the way we consumed the web. We moved away from individual web pages and started visiting the Google home page. Search for something and out came a bunch of results. Simple we thought, yet complex it was. Who decides which result should come up tops? Not Google surely. No.

Thus was born the origins of Internet’s caste system.

I have more heads of cattle then you have; if you are a villager living on the Serengeti plains of Africa. I rank higher up in Google search results than you do, if you’ve decided to make the Cyberspace your playground.

Thus was created a new generation of narcissists. Googling their names to find where they stood when compared to their peers and namesakes. I have done it myself secretly, I must admit.

What Google started didn’t end there. When platforms like Blogger, Typepad, WordPress and others gave anyone online the opportunity to create, it also started to create a pecking order of sorts. Arianna Huffington, Robert Scoble, Michael Arrington. India’s own Amit Agarwal,Rashmi Bansal, soon became the Brahmins of the web. Six figure speaking assignments, insider tips, first looks at new stuff, publishing contracts.

The social media curation business was in full flow, creating clear class systems with award shows, lists and more. Bloggies. AdAge’s ranking of top marketing bloggers. Indiblogger complied India’s own list. I saw your blog, chipped in an enthusiastic intern who dropped by my office. I have one too, he said, has an Indirank of 67. Crash! My world went down. With a score languishing in the 20s. Woe to ye writer for a blog few care to read.

It wouldn’t end there. Nike+, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and more. Nicholas Kamm/AFP

It wouldn’t end there. Nike+, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and more. Some of us were just better at doing stuff and the world could know. I just ran 18 Kms a friend’s Nike+ status update mocked at me. The last I ran for exercise was 18 years ago.

NigaHiga has four million YouTube subscribers my son told me the other day. I looked up mine. Four. As if the zeroes really didn’t matter.

Facebook fans and friends, Twitter and Instagram follower lists – I wasn’t making a mark. Falling away in the social media leaderboard.

And then came the rating guys. Standard & Poor’s of the internet, as it were. Size does matter, they say, knowing my abysmal record so far, I wasn’t sure how I would measure up.

The big name around in this nascent business is Klout, as the name suggests measures your clout, online. Klout, the standard of influence they claim, 80 million people have apparently compared themselves using the algorithm. Justin Bieber scores a 100 on 100. Unless you are a movie star or someone such, I urge you to stay away. With a score in the low 50s and my activity across various social networks I am classified a specialist. If it were like India’s multilayered caste system I would be a barber, probably. Nice hair! Oh go away now.

There are others out there waiting to divide us. Each one with a proprietary method. Peer Index, inviting you to understand your online social capital. One that groups you based on your activity, authority and your network. There’s Twenty Feet described an ego tracking service. Carl Jung has met his match. The Times UK has another The Social List, a system set up to measure your social wealth. Could a bribe help, I wonder?

So why these class systems you may ask. We are seeing some answers already. Klout has introduced Klout Perks, a system to reward people basis their social influence. They worked with Facebook and Audi to deliver different experiences to people depending on their Klout scores. Stephen King recently gave away his new book Mile 81 free to select members of Klout.

Looks like I am falling short in the ranking game, with middling numbers across the board. Wish I could go back to the simpler days of the Internet. Or maybe I need to move on.

Gardening, anybody?

R.Prakash
Post Box # 46,Mavelikara-690101
Kerala,India.
Mob- +91 99 46 75 71 78 / +91 8907704079