Indigenous people of South India

They say that there is no social divide in India. I say stop kidding yourself for that. These people are like that cat which drinks stolen milk closing its eyes thinking that no one is watching.

I was reading the article about the Adivasis fight for ST status on Guwahati streets in Assam and the subsequent retaliatory violence.

Click here to read more about that news.
Click here also to read more about that news.

Let me not bore you with all the details, because you would have already read the news from the news websites. I want you to look at the below pictures. Is this how our fellow citizens treat each other? By beating them up for fighting for their rights? By stripping and chasing the young women on the roads? Is this how Assameese treat women? They beat up 250 adivasis and sent them to hospitals while the police remained spectators. Their mistake is to fight for their rights.

The Adivasi woman who was stripped will be given Rs 1 lakh as compensation and a job in the government. Imagine how you would feel it is your sister or wife? She definitely is somebody’s sister or wife, isn’t it?

“This is barbarism at its worst,” said culture scholar Keshavananda Deva Goswami.

According to social scientist Hiren Gohain, the sight of a woman running naked and scared would haunt Assam for a long time.

I don’t understand from where that much hatred comes. Are we not living in 21st century? How can people behave so “uncivilized”?

I want to tell you a story. I’m going to ask you to close your eyes while I tell you the story. I want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to yourselves. Go ahead. Close your eyes, please. This is a story about a young woman who is fighting for her rights. She is one among the thousands of people who gathered on the streets of Guwahati to fight for her rights. The protesters were marching towards the Assembly to demand for their rights. Police refuse to give permission for the procession. The gathering gets violent and it turns into mob violence. The protestors damaged vehicles and destroyed roadside shops.

I want you to picture this woman. The police successfully disperse the crowd to bring the streets under control. Suddenly the local people started getting active. They jump out and grab her. They drag her on the roads. They rip her clothes from her body. She desperately ran for cover on the Guwahati roads looking for help but to no avail. Later, some passers-by took her to a nearby locality, where she was given clothes. Can you see her? I want you to picture that young woman.

The young woman who was stripped will be given Rs 1 lakh as compensation and a job in the government.

Now imagine if she’s your sister or your wife.

Click here to read the entire story.

SURESH RAMAKRISHNA BURDE does not belong to a Scheduled Tribe. He belongs to an Upper Caste. But he was greedy. Reservation is a privilege that is offered to the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes by the Constitution of India. He wants to enjoy the benefits of the Reservation System. He does not want to stop the exploitation of the Scheduled Tribal people by the Upper Castes. He wants to continue that by hook or crook. He gets a fake certificate from some corrupt babu for money and secured a job in BHEL by furnishing that false caste certificate declaring himself as a Scheduled Tribe in 1982. Date of appointment is 31.5.1982.

Nine years after Burde was employed, his caste certificate was referred for verification to the district collector of Nagpur district, when the Scheduled Tribes Employees Association of the Company lodged a complaint against him. The district collector as well as the Chairman of Scheduled Tribe Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee whom the matter was referred found the certificate false and it was invalidated.

In consequence to the findings the Company terminated his services in 2004 which was challenged by him in the Bombay High Court. The Court, after accepting his undertaking that he would not take any advantage of being a member of Scheduled Tribes in future, reinstated him in services.

BHEL then approached the Supreme Court contending that the employee got job by fraudulent means and termination of his job was right. A Bench comprising Justice G P Mathur and Justice R V Raveendran gave the ruling “Where a person secures an appointment on the basis of a false caste certificate, he cannot be allowed to retain the benefit of the wrong committed by him and his services are liable to be terminated“.

Click here to view the article related to SURESH RAMAKRISHNA BURDE.

Click here to find the list of fake caste certificate seekers in Andhra Pradesh found in one the government websites.

GOLLA LOKARADYA does not belong to a Scheduled Tribe. He was also greedy.

His details according to the employee census - 2001 from Andhra Pradesh government website.

Father’s Name: GOLLA RAMACHANDRA NAIDU
Employee Code: 12501003367
Sex: Male
Date Of Birth: 24/04/1950
Date Of Entry into Service: 18/11/1976
Designation: ACTO                                         

Click here to view his employment details. Search for LOKARADYA.

On 5/12/2004 his status as a Scheduled Tribal person has been cancelled by the Chittor District Collector.

I wonder, why there is no criminal prosecution of these under SC/ST atrocities act?

• A genuine ST person lost an oppurtubity because of each one of them.

• They lied and cheated the government.

• They contributed to the corruption by paying money to some babu.

• They are setting a precedant here. Others will follow them.

Many many more are still out there with fake ST certificates. When will they be caught and be brought to justice? Who will do that?

8 Reddy caste persons were hacked to death in broad daylight on August 6, 1991, with over 400 Dalit people chasing them along the bund of an irrigation canal in Tsundur. I wonder what you as a judge give the verdict as.

The following is the news item in The Hindu portal on Aug 01 2007. Click here to read more.

Twenty- one persons have been sentenced to life imprisonment and 35 others one-year rigorous imprisonment and a penalty of Rs. 2,000 each in the sensational Tsundur massacre case.

Eight Dalits were hacked to death in broad daylight on August 6, 1991, with over 400 people chasing them along the bund of an irrigation canal in Tsundur.

Delivering the judgment seven days short of anniversary of the attack on Dalits of Malapalli here, special judge Anis of Special Court under the SC/STs Prevention of (Atrocities) Act 1989, felt that it was not the rarest of the rare cases, which attracted death penalty. In the country’s first-ever special court set up for trying a case under the Act at the scene of offence, the judge acquitted 123 out of the 179 accused. In the case of 41 accused, the court did not find any evidence, while 62 of them were released on benefit of doubt. The other 20 were let off due to omission of evidence or having only single witnesses.

According to the Indian Penal Code..

Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention When a criminal act is done by several persons in furtherance of the common intention of all, each of such persons is liable for that act in the same manner as if it were done by him alone.When such an act is criminal by reason of its being done with a criminal knowledge or intention Whenever an act, which is criminal only by reason of its being done with a criminal knowledge or intention, is done by several persons, each of such persons who joins in the act with such knowledge or intention is liable for the act in the same manner as if the act were done by him alone with that knowledge or intention.

That is from books. Reality is something different. The IPC says all the 400 deserve the same punishment. Then why I am seeing different numbers over here. How can this case should not be called rarest of the rare cases? Is it that common in Independent and Secular India to kill 8 people in broad day light and get away?

I was watching a movie called Beyond The Gates (AKA Shooting Dogs). The movie is about the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. There is a character in that movie called Rachel who will be a BBC News reporter. Prior to the Rwandan assignment she worked in Bosnia during the Kosovo conflict in the early 90s. She express that she used to cry every night after the work thinking about the dead women she used to see everyday as part of her work. She thought one of those dead women can be her mother. She says that might be because those dead women are White. Now she has no feelings to the dead people she is seeing there in Africa. She says they are just “Dead Africans“.

While I was doing Google on Yerukalas I stumbled across this link many times. But I never really observed that small detail.

Clik here to view the link.
Clik here to view another version of the same link.

I bet you would not be able to guess what I am going to write about.

Enough suspense, I am more interested in the column called Social Status. Dr. K. Arjuna Rao is an Associate Professor, Department Of History in Osmania University. He has several degrees to his credit. He has a M.A in History, M.Phil in Modern History and Ph.D in Modern Period. In spite of all this education and all these credentials, he couldn’t avoid that Social Status column in his Curriculum Vitae.

Even after many glances, I couldn’t really grasp the effect of this attribute in his CV. Curiously, with all due respect to all the respected Professors, I started looking at other Professor’s CVs in the same website. I am surprised to find that not even a single other CV has got this attribute.  For example, http://www.osmania.ac.in/Economics/m_narasimhulu.htm.

I looked further, in other institute websites. I could not find even a single university where they have shown the Social Status.

I heard and know that Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in spite of all his credentials and degrees had to face this social stigma. But I didn’t expect to see an Associate Professor of Osmania University having his caste mentioned in his CV. I wonder whether it is official policy to show the Social Status of Professors of Scheduled Tribes or is it stupid dumb arrogance.

I have been thinking very hard to find one right reason to justify the purpose to include a attribute like that in any CV.

I was reading a news article in one of the Telugu local papers. That article mentions about the political representation of the backward classes as a whole which includes backward castes, SCs and STs in Andhra Pradesh. According to the census, 80 percent of the population falls under this backward classes category.

The Forum for Empowerment of Weaker Sections has presented some statistical data after studying the election results from 1984 to 2004. So, technically the data is of recent period which every one is supposed to call as Progressive Times. Andhra Pradesh has got 23 districts and 294 seats.

Taking a quick look at the 2004 assembly elections, there was no representation in six of the districts from this 80 percent of the population. In the next 5 districts, there is one representative from the 80 percent. So it makes like 5 seats from around 150 seats. Statistically it is like 80 percent population has got 3 percent representation in these 11 districts.

Reddy caste population in AP is around 5.9 percent and they represent 96 seats. It is 33 percent of the total seats.

Kamma caste population in AP is around 3.6 percent and they represent 35 seats. It is 13 percent of the total seats.

Kapu caste population in AP is around 4.5 percent and they represent 21 seats. It is 8 percent of the total seats.

Together the above three castes, compromise the population of 14 percent and get 50 percent of seats.

According to the Livelihood Options Project, the backward communities are considered as ‘losers’. Livelihood Options Project is undertaken by Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Britain’s leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. According to their study these people are considered as ‘losers’ because of the below reasons..

• Lack of assets, education, skills.
• Lack of access to Pro-poor programmes.
• Lack of strong social networks that have allowed pooling and sharing of resources.
• Lack of access to patronage.
• Lack of access to political power.
• Lack of access to land acquisition.

It somehow makes me think that the political power point is interlinked with all the other points.

I also remember a quote “He who has the gold makes the rules”.

I came across that title in one of the leading Indian newspaper’s website while searching for news about Yerukalas.  Click here to read more.

The author starts off the article saying It’s time for brisk business for basket weavers around this time of the year. Brisk business for basket weavers? Anyway that is not the point. The point is the sub-humane conditions the Yerukalas are being forced to live. When will there will be a change in the living conditions of this downtrodden and exploited group of people? Why do they have to pay local goondas for living on land that belongs to Bangaru Jadalamma Devasthanam?

Why that is the title of this article is Cashing in on the festive season instead of sub-humane conditions of Yerukalas or Exploitation of Yerukalas? When selling 2 baskets per day and making Rs.50 did is considered as Cashing on? These people are below poverty line. They don’t even earn enough money to save for the rainy days. The author mentions that their children do not go to school and they are always in debt.

The author must be out of her mind to give the title of this article as such. Cashing??