Eating the cheating Chettiar’s dog-food

French queen Marie Antoinette was not so bad. After all, she innocently told starving peasants “If you don’t have bread, eat cake”. In any case, it has to be granted that cake is routinely eaten by human beings all over the world. But Sonia Gandhi’s pet dog Jairam Ramesh asked leaders of Left parties to eat dog food if they did not like Palaniappan Chidambaram Chettiar’s bullshit budget. Business Standard (March 2, 2007) reported this incident in “Chinese Whispers” on page 14. We must welcome this very practical suggestion because Left (kept) parties also wag their tails and support this dog-forsaken government which believes in eliminating poverty by killing the poor systematically.

So henceforth all of us should eat dog food which we rightfully deserve. Looks like people get the food and governments they deserve. Ordinary food like bread and milk are meant only for the pet dogs of foreign pedigree residing at Pali Hill, Napean Sea Road and Malabar Hill... But let us first feed some dog biscuits to the cheating Chettiyar from Kandanur ... live on TV... After all, the Chettiyar family must lead by example... Samir Jain’s Times Now TV must cover this grand event live just like the Times of India (March 2, 2007) has carried exclusive photographs of the cheating Chettiar’s ancestral house in Kandanur, Sivagangai, on p.19.

Since the cheating Chettiar is also a lawyer representing Coca Cola India, the company may even start a special brand of premium dog food called Thiruvalluvar and Thirukkural. And rightly so... Because the cheating Chettiar has used Thiruvalluvar as a marketing tool and mascot for his doggone budget. Samir Jain can, of course, be expected to purchase 2% stake in the new venture and promote both the brands as usual in all Times Group publications. Other guys who must eat dog food and lead by example are Jairam Ramesh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Manmohan Singh.

A dog food carnival should be organised in a five-star hotel... Rashtrapati Bhavan should also include dog food in the menu... Talk of eating humble pie. All government bureaucrats should also eat dog food...Once they have eaten enough dog food and sodomised each other doggie-style, they are likely to become common man’s best friends...

After all dog is man’s best friend... Once these fellows become common man’s best friends, may be, they will learn to appreciate useless things like farmers committing suicide, malnutritioned children, falling water tables etc... It would also be a nice idea to make dog our national animal - 3 dogs and Ashok Chakra. After all, in India all of us quietly, loyally and faithfully obey our bosses’ bullshit orders like dogs. Dogs bark once in a while, but we always wag our tails. We also backbite each other with dogged determination... So what if you have to pay too much EMI on housing loans? Who asked you to stay in flats? You can always stay in kennels.

Soon HDFC and ICICI Bank may start lending kennel loans. Others who don’t get these loans can always be street dogs or stray dogs because Public Distribution System is in a very bad shape and is already being dismantled. But that need not worry you because several “saintly” women like Maneka are always busy setting up several NGOs for the welfare of street dogs and strays. So you will get to pose with nude celebs like Pamela Anderson at the local Lion’s Club, for photographs which will be carried in the media... You can also complain to the Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) whenever your bosses violate your animal rights, since human rights simply don’t exist under our Banias, bullshitting bosses and politicians.

So simply eat whatever you are given by your masters like press barons, Banias, bullshitting bosses and politicians, just like you publish all releases handed over by corporate communications and public relations pimps without any complaints or indigestion whatsoever.

If you can digest bullshit press releases everyday, dog food should not be too difficult to digest at all. You will surely get used to it. In fact, over a period of time, you will not only enjoy it, but also prefer eating dog food. But if the Samir Jains of the world insist on feeding you dogs called PRESStitudes and WHORE-nalists with pure vegetarian food, do not run to SPCA or PETA to complain, because these are all run by rich vegetarian Gujarati, Marwadi and Jain Banias who are determined to make you eat vegetarian food, especially when they know you don’t enjoy it. Bon appetite. Life’s not such a bitch.

Hurdles & betrayals facing Dalit movement

I have chosen the subject of “Hurdles & betrayals facing Dr. Ambedkar mission” for my keynote address. “Independent” India has not produced a thinker, scholar, and philosopher of the stature of Dr. Ambedkar.

M.K. Gandhi, described by Brahminical people as the “Father of the Nation” was discarded by the Hindus themselves for whom he worked and died after making them rulers of India. History has finally thrown him into the waste paper basket.

Babasaheb Ambedkar has emerged as the country’s tallest intellectual titan and history has given the highest place, calling him the “Father of India”, meaning the father of all the castes and communities of the country. But Gandhi remains merely as the “Father of nation” — meaning just one among India’s many nations. But this one ungrateful nation, the nation of Hinds, itself has rejected him.

Our considered opinion is that the Dalit community, comprising the country’s single largest population of 20%, could not make use of Babasaheb’s burning thoughts because of the serious failures on the part of the Dalit leadership.

For want of time we are citing only the three important “betrayals” committed by us:

(1) The greatest hurdle which our Hindu enemies put before Dalits is the Reservation in (1) education, (2) jobs and (3) elected posts. Not only the Hindu rulers of India led by Gandhi cheated us but they used this important constitutional measure to hinduise (enslave) the non-Hindu, if not anti-Hindu, Dalits.

Remember, Babasaheb had never asked for reservations. His demand for “separate electorate”, was scuttled by the cunning Gujarati Bania (Gandhi) by going on his “epic fast” (in which he did not die). Reservations killed the very future of Dalits and made us the permanent slaves of Hindus.

As the orphaned children of Babasaheb we should have fought for “separate electorate” but we betrayed our Father and opted for reservations which produced a “creamy layer” that was co-opted by the Hindus and thus got totally alienated from the community itself. Reservations have benefited not even 5% of the community even after 60 years of “independence”. Reservations helped the Hindu rulers to divide the community. More than that, the reservations made us permanent beggars before Hindus and we lost our revolutionary fervour.

Reservations also made us forget our own uneducated, poverty-stricken brothers (95%). Today, a wide gulf has developed between the two. The village-dwelling Dalit masses consider us as their enemy.

In the political field, those elected from reserved seats have committed the greatest crime on the community. So much so we have sent 120 donkeys to the Lok Sabha to carry the dirty laundry of Hindus — their mouths gagged by their Hindu bosses.

It is the failure of the educated and employed Dalits that has come as the greatest betrayal of Babasaheb. We are deeply worried over this problem.

(2) The second most serious betrayal came when we disobeyed the “final words” of Babasaheb.

We have described these “final words” as “Three Commandments” of Babasaheb, namely “Educate, Agitate, Organise”. (V.T. Rajshekar, When Dalits Disobeyed Final Words of their Father, DSA-2005).

For about 20 years (until we corrected the order), our educated Dalits continued to subvert the order either consciously or unconsciously.

What are those “final words”? Educate, Agitate, Organise. That is the order.

This is not Babasaheb’s invention. He took it from Budhist Thri Saranas: Buddham, Dhammam, Sangham. It means Educate, Agitate, Organise. But our educated Dalits twisted it out of shape and put “Organise” between the two and thereby stunted the growth of militant Dalit movement.

Dalit movement will become genuine and also revolutionary only if it is born out of “agitation” like the Andhra Dalit Mahasabha born out of the Karamchedu and Tsundur bloody violence by Khammas and Reddis. Otherwise it will be a fake Dalit movement. After our powerful campaign in Dalit Voice, we finally corrected the order. But by then enough damage was done. We have no time to elaborate the meaning and implication of each command. We have written a booklet itself on this — available outside.

Because of the twisting of the order, putting “Organise” before “Agitate”, some Dalit leaders misguided the innocent Dalit masses, formed hundreds of rubber stamp-organisations — conveniently making a short-cut to name, fame and quick money. Just see how many Republican Parties, Samata Sainik Dals, BAMCEFs are there. Every Dalit leader is having his own pocket organisation with hardly any followers.

Because of this, Dalit movement suffered terrible damage once for all. Even today, there are several hundreds of Dalit organisations sticking to the wrong order — even while calling themselves Budhists.

(3) The third “betrayal” of Babasaheb by us is in refusing to follow his call to quit Hinduism and embrace Budhism.

Not even 10% of India’s Dalit population has taken to Budhism. This is partly because the illiterate Dalit masses are not even told anything about Budhism and its revolutionary content. Except in Maharashtra and parts of UP, we have hardly any Budhism.

In places where Dalits took to Budhism, they fell into the Brahminical trap of no beef-eating, vegetarianism, Marwadi Goenka’s Vipassana (meditation) and idol worship. So much so Brahmins today do not consider Budhism, as practised by our people, as danger to them.

But remember, Adi Shankara’s violent war against Budhism and killing thousands and thousands of Budhists and the burning of Budhist viharas then. The Tirupati temple was once a Budhist vihara which the Adi Shankara destroyed and made into a Hindu temple.

Here again our educated Dalit leadership betrayed Babasaheb.

(4) Fourth and the most important: we have committed the greatest crime against Babasaheb by converting Dalit movement into a male-dominated affair. We men should be put to shame when women academics led by Vice-Chancellor Veena Das and Sister Thummapudi Bharati put a mirror before our ugly faces.

Conclusion:

As the Editor of Dalit Voice, the country’s largest circulated Dalit journal and an uncompromising follower of Babasaheb, we see before us total darkness all over India as far as the Ambedkarite movement is concerned. We see no signs of hope when Dalits are becoming wholesale Hindu and slaves of Hindus.

Babasaheb said Untouchables are not Hindu and were never Hindu. But the constitution called us Hindu and the Brahmins have made us super Hindu by using us as the weapon to kill Muslims.

The educated and employed sections have totally betrayed Babasaheb, caught in the jaws of gandhism, marxism, naxalism, Hinduism and Goenka’s Budhism.

We see all-round gloom.

But there is a silver lining: The Brahminical rulers have decided to totally scrap reservation which has already come to end. Perhaps once the fish is thrown out of the water, and the Dalits start facing mass unemployment, starvation and driven to the wall, only then they will get angry and revolt against the existing Dalit leadership. And also the Hindus.

Contradictions between Hindus and Dalits will sharpen only when the reservations are totally scrapped.

Khairlanji in Maharashtra has shown such a glimmer of hope. More such revolts will come soon.

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Keynote address delivered at the Centre for Ambedkar Studies, Women’s University, Tirupati, AP, March 1-2, 2007

What a misfortune our 10 million Bahujan elites have failed DV

As a child I used to see a gramophone with the picture of a dog sitting and listening before the speaker. After some years I could understand the meaning of HMV written thereon. That meant His Master’s Voice. Later Dalit Voice once again told me in the 80s my master’s voice that meant Babasaheb Ambedkar’s voice to the Bahujans. Besides V.T. Rajshekar is a master by his own right. We read his Voice on total liberation of Dalits from the cruel varna system of Brahmins. Though I have learnt a lot from other scholars, DV’s contribution and clear-cut ideology of VTR has enriched me and made me sharp. I have read many scholarly books but DV’s guidance is unparalleled. It was not easy easy for me to write and speak in English freely. This problem was solved by DV. I could now express my opinions freely in English because of DV. I could not find a single English Dalit magzazine that is equal to DV. It is our misfortune that the 1-crore (10 million) educated and well-settled Dalit-Backwards could not support the country’s only Bahujan journal which alone has the capacity to defeat the mighty Brahminical enemy. Despite all the odds, DV completed 25 years thus proving that devoted scholars like VTR can certainly bring the socio-cultural revolution. I am always at the services of DV and the great VTR.

Holi used to burn Budhists

For last many years, we have been advocating that the Dalits and Bahujans as a whole should try and understand that many festivals presently being observed in India, are being designed to denigrate them. Holi is one such. For details, kindly see my article “Holi: festival of Bahujan Burning” on

www.ambedkar.org/jamanadas

It explains the idea behind Holi: that is burning of Bahujans.

It explains how Adi Shankara derived so much pleasure in seeing the Budhist bhikkus being burnt alive, as narrated by none other than Swami Vivekananda.

It was a pity that the Budhist youth themselves participate in the obscenities of Holi. However, at least in two important cities, Nashik and Nagpur (Maharashtra), they have been successful in giving to the masses an alternate program to Holi, so that they are dissuaded from the undesirable bouts of drinking of liquors, bhang and other intoxicants, and in other activities not conducive to moral behavior.

Vrutratna Samrat (March 6, 2007) reported from Nashik that a huge Budhist convention was organized on that day. Budhist monks said that “the manuvadis have massacred the Budhists and celebrated Holi”. They asked the masses to remember that 84,000 Budhist viharas were destroyed by Adi Shankara and appealed all to follow the tenets of Budhism.

Another report from Nagpur said Phule-Shahu- Ambedkar Manch also organized a “dharma mitra” convention for “karma-kand dahan” i.e. burning of rituals and rites. Also high tributes were paid to great literary figure, who recently met a fatal road accident, a well known author, Dr. Kishor Kale. The speakers explained how Hiranya Kashapu and Holika were killed by treachery. They also explained on the day of Holi, how Saint Tukaram Maharaj was murdered and it was falsely propagated that he went to Vaikuntha with his human body, which only meant that his mortal remains were not found. (For details, see my above mentioned article on website).

Such programs should be arranged all over India every year. I consider that organizing such programs keeps the Budhist boys away from joining their friends in unholy activities of Holi. Only advising them is not sufficient; we must give them alternative programs to keep them busy for the whole day.

Divali, Dasara and Holi are the three important festivals of India. It is said Divali is the festival of Vaishyas, Dasara of Kshatriyas and Holi of shudras. There seems to be no festival specifically meant for Brahmins.

During all festivals, Brahmins participate to collect the daxina from others. As there are no other varnas except Brahmins and shudras in the Kali Yuga, all Bahujans are exploited in all these festivals. How it is done is beautifully explained by Mahatma Phule in his Brahmana che kasab, and those Bahujans who have not read that must do so.

Bahujans have been successful in giving alternative program to their youth on the occasion of Dasara, as they celebrate Ashok Vijaya Dashmi and anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar’s Dhamma Chakka Pavattan. If suitable alternative is given for Holi, as some people are doing, it would be a great step. For last few years, the people who follow Shiva Dharma are already celebrating Divali by performing Vaman Dahan in some parts of Maharashtra.

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How can Dalit elites who betrayed Babasaheb save Dalits ?

Hinduisation (enslavement) of Dalits is taking place at a break-neck speed. The Hindu terrorist forces have invested billions and billions of rupees on enslaving us. A top terrorist leader, Nana Deshmukh, senior even to A.B. Vajpayee, once resigned his Union Cabinet post and went back into the Madhya Pradesh forest to hinduise the Adivasis — a work in which he had his heart. The foundation he is heading is worth several millions of rupees. The RSS has a cadre of dedicated souls who work without salary and in remote areas.DV has been the bitterest critic of Brahmins and their terrorist parties. But we at the same time acknowledge their dedication, self-sacrifice, patience, perseverance and deep commitment. Their entire work is no doubt destructive and anti-national. We admit it. But even to do such a work for decades and decades it needs tremendous energy, dedication and commitment.

Do our people have it?

The entire Hindu terrorist party programme is confined to social and cultural activities.

They do not have a single economic programme, much less a political plan.

Even as they are fully engaged in social and cultural work, the Brahmins diverted our people to economic and political work. They succeeded and we failed. We have to admit this.

It is the Dalits who were used to demolish the Babri Masjid and later kill Muslims in thousands in Gujarat (2002).

This the terrorists did so successfully after hinduising (enslaving) us. We forgot all the Three Commandments of Babasaheb and even betrayed Babasaheb who died with great sorrow on observing this great betrayal.

Today all over India, the Hindu terrorists are using our people to kill Muslims and destroy their properties — because we have become better Hindus than the Brahmins.

What is the point in blaming Brahmins? They are doing their duty which they are doing so perfectly in the interest of their jati.

Are we doing our duty? How can those who betrayed their own father do their duty?

Take the case of DV. We have established the country’s largest circulated journal — uncompromising on Dr. Ambedkar mission. But not even 5% of the educated Dalits came to our support.

Kanshi Ram established the country’s most powerful party for Dalits and proved its might. But not even 5% of the country’s Dalits joined BSP.

In big cities where these elite Dalits live in hundreds, DV has hardly any readership. Our family members are mostly from semi-urban, rural areas where “thinking” Dalits live.

The failure of DV even after 26 years to make a mark is also the failure of Dalits — rather of the failure of India itself. DV is neither living nor dead. So also India. India is neither living nor dead. Shocking. We will discuss this at our April 8 silver jubilee meet in Delhi — EDITOR.

US may use Pakistan land to attack Iran?

Former ISI Chief, Gen (retd) Hameed Gul, has said that the Untied States is paving the way to use Pakistan’s territory for its expected attack on Iran in order to shift the blame of its failure in Afghanistan to Pakistan. Talking to a private TV Channel, Gen. Gul said that NATO forces have intensified their activities on Pak-Afghan border as they are frustrated due to their failure in Afghanistan. US-backed Karzai government has completely failed in Afghanistan and the USA has now realized that they are now facing strong resistance from Taliban. Gul said that the American policy is to use different tactics to pressurize Pakistan and the main objective of recent visit of US Vice-President Dick Cheney to pressurize Pakistan as US would need Pakistan’s support and Balochistan land to attack Iran. The Pakistani government may say no. Criticizing the government, he said that Pakistan presently was facing difficult time of its history due to weak politics of present government. Pakistan is a strong and nuclear capable country and has impregnable defence, he added.

http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?170916

Puri Jagannath temple was Budhist

Jagannath Temple, Puri, Orissa was a Budhist temple according to Swami Vivekananda.

RSS gang and other sections of the Hindu brigade have been demanding conversion of mosques into Hindu temples without proofs so sites have to be excavated.

But there are creditable proofs that many Budhist viharas were forcibly converted into Hindu temples. One of such temples happens to be Jagannath temple at Puri, Orissa.

And it is no other person who makes it public but Swami Vivekananda who while intervening in a debate if Jesus Christ ever visited Jagannath temple says:

“There was a book written a year or two ago by a Russian gentleman, who claimed to have found out a very curious life of Jesus Christ, and in one part of the book he says that Christ went to the temple of Jaganath to study with the Brahmins, but became disgusted with their exclusiveness and their idols and so he went to the Lamas of Tibet instead, became prefect, and went home.

To any man who knows anything about Indian history, that very statement proves that the whole thing was fraud, because the temple of Jaganath is an old Buddhistic temple. We took this and others over and re-Hinduised them. We shall have to do many things like that yet. That is Jagannath, and there was not one Brahmin there then, and yet we are told that Jesus Christ came to study with the Brahmins there.

So says our great Russian archaeologist. [Swami Vivekananda in The Sages of India in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol 3, p264, published by Advaita Ashram, Calcutta].

The Hindu brigade must tell us when they are going to return this Budhist temple to the Budhists?

(http://india.indymedia. org/en/2003/03/3685.shtml)

Foreign origin of Brahmin: German scientists research

Who are the indigenous people of India, the autochthons? Best reliable means to determine this is the study of blood relations, i.e. the study of genetics. Such a study has once again been done by none other than the reputed Max Plank Institute of Germany, and the study confirms the foreign origin of Brahmins and other upper castes. But the Adivasis and the shudra casts are natives.

MEDIA BLACKOUT

There were several such studies before as well, but the Indian media has blacked out these studies by an international team of scientists including those from the Madurai School of Molecular Biology and one more international study and very recently another study by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, the first two studies were posted on the website of dalitstan.org. The Max Plank study can be accessed at:

http://www.eva.mpg.de/genetics /pdf/cordauxcurbiol2004.pdf.

However, the most compelling evidence of Aryan invasion is in the Rig Veda itself which gives a graphic details of the invasion and destruction that took place under the leadership of Purandhaka (destroyer of the Indus Valley cities, Indra).

The study confirms the Central Asian origin of the Aryans with finality.

Mark Stoneking of the Max Plank Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany has proved the Aryan invasion theory. According to his paper, “Independent origins of Indian caste and tribal paternal lineages”, the caste system in India is no more than 3,500 years as per Romila Thapar.

Moreover, the caste system was elaborated only within the last 3,500 years, which constitutes a rather short period of time for observing such dramatic differences in Y chromosome variation between caste and tribal people at a pooled-data level.

It therefore appears that the Indian caste and tribal paternal lineages derive from independent sources. Reference number 17 — on which the Professor bases his claim — is a paper written by people who base their ideas on the assumption that the Aryan invasion theory is true.

(Gadgil. M., and Thapar R -1990. Human ecology in India: Some historical perspectives. Inter- discipl. Sci., Rev.15, 209-223).

Thus in a display of academic brilliance, Stoneking uses Romila Thapar’s claim that Aryans invaded India and introduced the caste system and goes on to prove that Aryans invaded India and introduced the caste system.

You can contact Mark Stoneking at stoneking ATeva.mgp.

Max Planck Institute email ids can be found here: http://www. eva.mpg.de/english/profil.htm, feedback@sabha.info

HYDERABAD STUDY

Sher Singh adds from Calcutta: “Caste in the genes” is the title of the report published in the Telegraph (Jan.1, 2007). It is based on the genetic findings of K. Thangaraj, a scientist at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, and its Director Lalji Singh. Its main findings are: Aryans began to arrive in India only after 1,500 BC from Central Asia. Caste system emerged some 8,000 years ago when there was a shift in the way of life from hunting-gathering to the rudimentary farming and the first settlements.

Two tribes in the Andamans — the Onges and the great Andamanese — are the direct descendants of men from Africa, who moved out some 70,000 years ago. Modern humans out of Africa had arrived in India about 45,000 years ago.

The Indo-Europeans or Aryans arrived about 3,500 years earlier.

In 2001, Michael Bamshad, a University of Utah researcher’s study showed “upper caste are genetically closer to Europeans having a high proportion of Eurasian genes, while the lower castes are more similar to Asians.

AFRICAN ORIGIN OF DALITS

Richard Cordaux showed in 2004 that “India’s castes are closer to Central Asians than to its tribes”. These findings are published in BMC Genetics journal. “Our findings point to a tribal origin of the lower castes”, says Thangaraj. Thus it is clear that the Dalits are the descendants of African parents, dark in complexion. The upper castes are the direct descendants of White-Europeans. They also admit that there are 4,600 ethnic groups and communities in Indian subcontinent. These are the submerged Dalit nations, kept under perpetual racial subjugation by the upper castes. They have been even using religion to perpetuate this racial discrimination, Purusha Sukta in the Rig Veda is a classical example of this racial discrimination. The jargon used by the authors have been kept out to make it a bit more intelligible to the laymen.

Tamil Muslim show in Delhi

New Delhi: Thousands of Muslims on March 7 marched to Parliament from Ramlila grounds to demand exclusive reservation for Muslims in jobs and educational opportunities in the Central, state governments and private sector. They also demanded the implementation of certain recommendation of Sachar Committee. This march was facilitated by Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam, a socio-political advocacy and social work organisation of the Muslims of Tamil Nadu. Apart from thousands of TMMK volunteers from Tamil Nadu, thousands of Muslims from various Muslim organizations from different parts of the country joined the March.

Sex & caste used by Hindus to enslave Devadasis, bar-dancers

A conference of women’s movements from Sept.9 to 12, 2006 held at Calcutta brought out new questions, issues and perspectives.

The first such conference of autonomous women’s groups was held in Bombay in 1980 — to share opinions, build friendship, to support each other’s struggles, to formulate future plans and strategies for strengthening the movement. At the fifth conference held at Tirupati, issues of “lower caste” women came into the agenda. Similarly, issues of lesbian women humanized the politics of sexuality.

DALITS to LEAD DALIT

The Calcutta conference was attended by several new, hitherto not seen, women’s groups mobilized along their professions and work — thus making new sessions necessary. Sessions were held along the following lines — caste, gender, marginalized sexualities, women of religious minorities, women under state violence, sex workers, migrant women, problems of agricultural labour, violence against women in the family and outside, disabled women etc.

It was good to see the large-scale mobilization of Dalit women’s groups. One can imagine the size of this group by the space allotted to them — that is the plenary space. Among the people who attended the session were: sanitary workers, fourth class municipality workers, domestic workers, joginis, maatammas, sex workers, devadasis, agricultural labour, bar- dancers, construction workers, migrant workers. These women, who were in large numbers, are engaged in labour which is forced on them and looked down upon by the society.

Till now, one only saw Dalit women being organized by upper caste women. Now, with the rise of Dalit women leaders, such a situation seems to be on the decline. In such a context, it has become necessary to search for new questions, new discussions and new meanings.

In the session on Dalit women, many spoke about the relations between the Dalit movements, caste and gender movements and caste relations in the women’s groups were discussed. More importantly, the questions raised by sex workers, devadasis and bar dancers led to new discussions and a different perspective.

SEX WORKERS DEMAND

The sex workers demanded recognition to their profession as a work.

“We are selling only the sexual service but not our bodies, our rights should figure in the realm of human rights as we live and work in violent conditions, we should be given all the rights that the other workers have, even if society as a whole may take its time to recognize us, women’s movements should at least recognize these rights”.

They asserted that they have established their organization to resist and oppose the violence, harassment of the police and the other goons in the society. They noted that their struggle is not easy but complex. These were some of the issues placed before the conference.

The session on caste and gender was attended by over 50 devadasis. The leader of the devadasi sangham spoke in defence of their profession:

“We are able to eat three meals a day, wear good clothes because of this profession, we don’t think that this profession is demeaning. We are happy. Some people want to destroy this profession thinking that it is a social evil. If we found this profession difficult and intolerable, we would have begun the struggle to destroy it”.

This led to a long discussion.

BAR-DANCERS PLEA

The bar-dancers attended the conference under the banner of Bar Dal. There are 75,000 bar dancers in Maharashtra alone. Speaking about their problems, they said their profession is looked down upon, treated with disrespect in the society. The government has also banned their work. They won the case against the government ban in the Bombay High Court with the support of the bar owners and that the government has now appealed to the Supreme Court.

During the evening cultural programmes, the bar-dancers gave a performance. Some of the women went up the stage to give money to the performing bar-dancers. Dalit women raised an objection to this performance questioning the culture that was being reinforced on the stage. Their objections were:

Why Dalit women alone should sacrifice their lives to this culture of pleasing others? This profession of bar-dancers, aimed at pleasing people flush with money is an instrument of the new global market, and this work is insecure and demeaning which will obstruct the progress of Dalit women.

In fact, almost all the women in the Bar-Dal were Dalits. To this argument the bar-dancers retorted:

Are we not human beings? Can’t we choose the profession that we like? Who are you to call this profession demeaning and disrespectful? Don’t we have individual freedom?

With this, even the issues of sex workers and devadasis also exploded.

POLITICS OF CASTE

The opinion of the bar-dancers may appear democratic. But before they became bar-dancers, they were Dalit women. Why Dalits alone chose this profession? One should understand the politics of caste involved here. Every issue in our society is built on the foundations of caste. Whereas the practices of jogins and devadasis are built on the rural caste practices, in the cities it is influenced by values of global consumerism and markets.

Here, Dalit women are being used as instruments of pleasure and entertainment. One should question how only women of lower caste enter this profession.

While all the privileges of respect, security and opportunity in society are reseved for the upper castes, Dalits and Dalit women get pushed into the dangerous, insecure and disrespectful areas of work. Adding insult to injury, these professions are glamourised to keep the Dalits from coming out.

How can we defend the politics that glamourises these areas of work in the name of individual freedom? Such a glamour and glamourisation prevents the Dalits from recognizing their own true identity.

Some upper caste feminists support the “Bar Dal” issues. Such a support is surprising considering that they also pressed for rehabilitation packages for sex workers in the past, arguing that such a work is demeaning for women. Do these women’s groups now think that their earlier stand was a mistake?

HINDU FEMINIST DEMAND

Dalit women do recognize the importance of individual freedom. But we argue that political awareness should be developed about those “freedoms” that hinder our progress and self-respect. We are demanding creation of secure conditions of work for Dalit women even while questioning the conditions that are pushing Dalit women into such insecure and dangerous areas of work.

But the upper caste fashionable feminists are defending/encouraging this work of Dalit women without taking cognisance of their background. This is not a correct perspective. One should be able to see behind this veneer of truth.

CHOICE OF PROFESSION

If the Devadasis and bar-dancers articulated their freedom to choose their work while enjoying all other rights in the society, Dalit women would not have any objections to such a position. But Dalit women are oppressed, we remain hungry despite our hard labour, we are pushed into practices of jogini, maatamma and Devadasi against our will, subjected to atrocities and exploitation.

If Dalit women chose bar-dancing as a profession in the context of equal opportunities to employment, absence of caste and gender oppressions and where everyone enjoyed all the rights, then one can accept the choice of bar- dancing as a democratic right.

Instead, if one simply stressed on the “choice of profession” and “individual freedom” keeping aside the issues that deprive Dalits and Dalit women of their rights, it would amount to encouraging Dalit women to join these insecure and demeaning professions. It would also amount to supporting bar owners, global markets and its attendant cultures.

CULTURE & CASTE

We are not unaware of how global culture and even Hindu culture feeds on the blood and flesh of Dalit women. The very fact that the bar owners appealed to the court in support of bar dancing establishes this connection. One should understand the stand of bar dancers by locating them in the context of how the global culture, modernity, market values create insecurity and lack of opportunities among Dalits.

ROLE OF DALIT WOMEN’S MOVEMENT

If the bar-dancers had been aware of their own identity, they would not have taken such a stand. If only one understood concepts in their specific, regional caste contexts as opposed to the stereotypical arguments spouted by the upper caste feminists, such confusion about this issue would not have risen. Women’s movements should foreground the demand of the sex workers’ union that sex work should also be recognized as labour thereby raising discussions about the accepted definitions and meanings of labour and build a large-scale movement on this issue. We should recognize that the freedoms given to the Dalit women are oppressive if they impede their progress and self-respect. The women’s movements, especially Dalit women’s movements have the responsibility to raise the consciousness of women especially Dalit women, who are living in the shadow of layered illusions. (subadrajoopaka@yahoo.com)

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Fashionable feminist conspiracy

There is yet another angle to our Hindu “fashionable feminist” defence of the right of the sex workers, devadasis and bar-dancers. As of today these three categories of professions are reserved mainly to Dalits. But once these professions start attracting very high salary, Dalits will be pushed out and Brahmin and other upper caste women will monopolise these professions.

We have the famous precedent of Bharatanatyam in Tamil Nadu where temple dancing and singing were once reserved for Dalit women. As the dance attracted attention and gained popularity, the Dalit women were quietly edged out and the Brahmins took over the job of singing and dancing. M.S. Subbulakshmi, Vyjayantimala, the two famous Devadasi women, were co-opted and made famous. A Brahmin married MS. Bharatanatyam is today an upper caste monopoly. So also Lata Mangeshkar and her sisters belonged to the same profession attached to the Mangeshkar temple in Goa.

Whether it is the Bombay Red Light Area prostitutes, bar dancers or devadasis — now despised being a Dalit profession— will overnight attract Brahmin women once it becomes a lucrative profession. If a bar-dancer gets Rs. 20,000 for a night’s show, there will be no room for Dalits in the profession.

That is why our upper caste fashionable feminists are supporting the bar-dancers “right” to choose their profession and thus gradually prepare the ground for their daughters, nieces to take over. Beware of the fashionable feminists and their time passala women’s organisations — EDITOR.

Hindu leaders’ critique of Hindu religion

Perhaps this is a good time to open an informed debate on India’s caste apartheid — once prevalent even in South Africa. Your books could be used as powerful weapons to expose the Hindu apartheid system. The following from rediffmail.com is a protests against an anti-Hindu book in South Africa:-

Hindu groups in South Africa on March 4 protested against the distribution of an “anti-Hindu” book by a man who recently accused M.K. Gandhi of being a “racist.” Ram Maharaj, president of the South African Hindu Dharma Sabha, and Rugbeer Kalideen, its secretary-general, have accused Yousuf Deedat of Durban of “violating the rights” of Hindus and called on the Human Rights Commission to investigate the matter.

Gandhi as Hindu stooge : Deedat, who was recently lambasted by both Muslims and Hindus for distributing another book titled, Gandhi: A Stooge of the White South African Government, is now circulating a book that claims Hinduism is fraught with “immorality and indecency.” The book titled Oh You Hindu Awake is reportedly authored by one Dr. Chatterjee. Maharaj said he felt “physically sick” after reading the book.

“Deedat Junior has broken a promise his father made to us 12 years ago to stop the circulation of the book,” he said. He’s done it too many times. We are going to the Human Rights Commission with this book. It has to be banned, Maharaj said. Kalideen said: “It is a shocking, vile piece of writing. Deedat seems ignorant of the fact that it is unconstitutional to denigrate any religion”.

But Deedat claimed that the information in the book was factual.

“I fear nothing, because the information contained in the book is factual. The book was withdrawn in 1995 because we didn’t know the new system very well. People are powerless to stop this now,” he said.

Brahmin author

DV correspondent adds: Over a decade or so back, Dalit Voice too had received several copies of this book but all sold out now. We have just one copy which may be photo-copied and supplied to those interested in this important book. It is written by a Bengali Brahmin, Dr. Radha Kamal Chatterji, and the foreword is also by an upper caste (Hindu) Kayasth, a doctorate from London, Dr. G. Srivatsava. It has eight sections dealing with every aspect of Brahminism which today hides under the name of Hinduism.

Vivekananda, Hinduism’s most famous monk, Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, who remained a Hindu till his death, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, whom the Hindu terrorist party, RSS, has described as one of the pillars of Hinduism have all made similar if not more trenchant criticisms of Hinduism.

As all these are called “Hindus” by the Hindu terrorist leaders, they have every right to criticise their religion.

Arun Shourie criticism: Even a Hindu terrorist leader Arun Shourie, ex-union minister, has come out with a devastating attack on Hinduism in his book, Hinduism — Essence & Consequence, the photocopy of which is available with DV.

For photocopies of the book, Oh! You Hindu Awake, write to DV (pp.70, Rs. 50).

Cultural revolution via proportonal representation

From time immemorial various cultures and religions have goaded people to be benevolent in the service of people, particularly the disadvantaged. They have been promised the heaven in return for their service. However, we all know how successful such preachings have been in motivating bulk of the people towards service to the society. Today, if those in a positions of power in India do not take bribes for doing what is expected of then, they are considered to be fools, and are belittled. Worth of people is measured in terms of how much money he or she rakes up, not what they have done for the society.

If all positions of power in the society were made to depend upon helpfulness towards the society, we will find an abundance of kindness and compassion in the society as opposed to current glut of l oathsomeness and arrogance. Such a change of heart will be a true revolution indeed. Apparently, to measure one’s helpfulness towards the society we will have to ask the society itself regarding goodwill of person interested in getting positions of power, i.e. take society’s vote.

Whole state as one consituency: However, under our current electoral mode, known as plurality system or first-past-the-post (FPTP), people elect a single person as a winner of the election, with the rest declared losers. Under our current system of election with single seat constituencies, relatively small parties even with the support of as many as 10-15% voters may end up winning very few seats of power. It does not have to be that way. This unfair situation can be changed via what we call “Towards Total Democracy” (TTD).

It is an extended and modified form of open-party-list-Proportional-Representation (opl-PR) system of election. It should be noted that at present nearly half of the democratic countries in the world, including all of Europe, with exception of England and France, use one or the other form of PR or semi-PR.

Whole states will be considered to constitute single constituencies. Each of the voters will be asked to cast votes in favor of, say, a total of ten individaul candidates from one or more parties. Candidates’ votes would be added to the candidates’ respective party-votes. The voters can vote by collecting fliers of the candidates they like best, carrying their top ten choices to the polling booth and stuffing the fliers of their ten favorites (or any other paper identifying the names voter’s favorite candidates) into an envelope supplied to them at the booth and casting the same into a ballot-box. Seats of various level legislative bodies like Parliament, its Assembly, Zila Parishad, Block Council and Panchayat, may all be filled in a single electoral process, as described below. Not only that, even various bureaucratic, police and judicial positions can be filled from the same vote, as described underneath.

After voting, each of the parties may be allocated a party-quota of seats in proportion to the votes obtained by them. Parties would be supposed to fill their party-quotas of seats for Lok Sabha with their top vote-getting candidates. All such party-quotas (of various parties) may be put together in a master-list and serialized in descending order of votes obtained by various candidates. Rest of candidates may also be serialized in descending order of votes. We will call such a list as an auxiliary-list.

Master list: Off the top of the master-list each of the candidates will be declared eligible to a seat in Lok Sabha. However, they would be given option of taking charge of one of bureaucratic or police or judial positions that may have fallen vacant, provided the candidate has appropriate qualifications and experience. If someone does choose to become a bureaucrat or a judge, all of those below him/her in the master-list will be pushed up a notch. At the bottom of the master-list a candidate close to the top of the auxiliary-list will be pushed up into the battom of the master-list. This candidate from the auxiliary-list will be of the same party as the one who chose to become something other than an MP, subject to the constraints of various segmental quotas for women, SC/ST/OBCs, etc.

After all of the Lok Sabha seats are filled, from the remaining candidates a new master-list can be created for filling the Assembly seats. Again, the leftover candidates may be serialized in a new auxiliary-list. Filling of Assembly seats will be done just the way the state’s share of Parliament seats were filled. Many of the bureaucratic, police and judicial positions too will be filled off the same master-list. The process may be continued to fill the seats in: Zila Parishad, Block Council and Panchayat.

It would not be difficult to satisfy various min-quotas for various segments of the society. Suppose we need to fill 50 of the seats by women. Suppose in the master-list for Lok Sabha, there happen to be only 30 women. We would have to pull in 20 female candidates having largest number of votes in the auxiliary list (close to the top of the auxiliary-list but below the master-list) into the master-list at the expense of 20 male candidates close to the bottom of the master-list.

Suppose among these 20 female candidates close to the top of the auxiliary list there are 8 party-A candidates, 6 party-B candidates, 4 party-C candidates and 2 party-D candidates among the women candidates with most votes, adding to 20. From within party-lists of A, B, C and D parties, male members will have to make room for 8, 6, 4 and 2 women in their respective parties.

Those who had the misfortune of being forced to make room for women should have consolation that they would be able to win seats in the Assembly. Likewise those who would just have missed an Assembly seat may rest assured for seats in the next level below the Assembly (i.e., in the Zila Parishad).

Thus all of those in legislative or non-legislative positions will owe their positions, fully or partially, to public’s votes for them. This will make all of them obedient to the public sentiment and prevent them from stepping over public’s toes, as opposed to current practice of arrogant and conceited government servants.

Even in the private sector, the employers may be strongly encouraged to take popularity of their employees in the public’s eyes by taking into account votes obtained by them. This may be done by giving suitable tax-break for high popularity of their employees. The government can even encourage diversity ensuring apropriate mix of various segments of the population among its employees by giving tax-break for diversity as well. In this fashion, for getting any position of power, helpfulness to the public will be helpful. It will promote benevolence, compassion and good behavior towards all. Helpfulness may also be promoted in schools and colleges by making a course in “practical social work” compulsary at all levels of education, inculcating a habit of social work and benevolence among them from ealy childhood.

Such a new system will cause a change in our culture from one of corruption, conceit and arrogance to one of politeness and goodwill towards all. This will be the true revolution. The new systemwill have many other benefits. (satichou2@yahoo.com).

Do you know US Federal Reserve is a private bank owned by Jews ?

Do you know that the American Federal Reserve (Fed), which prints dollar currency notes and controls the entire finances of the super power, is privately owned?

America’s central bank is a private corporation with 300 owners, all international financiers who use zionism to cause strife and confusion. In fact, Americans work and fight for an international finance that has no allegiance to any nation, not even Israel.

Jews have financed “revolutions” and wars in over 200 years. This is the reason they financed the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. Had Trotsky come to power, instead of Stalin (not a Jew), the international financiers would today be running the Russias like they are running USA through the Fed.

USA can just print dollars to pay for its imports. This is the reason that increasingly the rest of the world is doing the work and Americans are doing the consuming, on loans from their private bankers, as Jefferson said 198 years ago. But the threat to the dollar value is imminent. It is the military tyranny of Washington that is sustaining the value of the dollar. If both Japan and China started to sell dollars it would precipitate an international rush to dump dollars, and this would have dire consequences in USA, much more so than in Japan and China. Especially China can easily adjust to consume what it is now exporting for dollars.

This situation is partly the reason for the planned war on Iran. It is to sustain the value of the dollar. But it is also to gratify the very powerful lobby of Jews, who are the most astute corrupters in Washington. To destroy Iraq and Iran is good for Israel.

Washington’s pursuit of zion’s interests divulge a moral primitivity, the barbary of which is already amply evident in Palestine.

Dalit as victim of “Hindu mind”

The power of “Hindu thought” is oppressive if not destructive. It is also suicidal if a victim tries to cultivate a “Hindu mind”. A Hindu imagines to think according to his need and his need is an “emotional need” to have someone oppressed by him.

What we mean by “Hinduism” is Brahminism which is hiding behind this newly popularised name.

Hindu impulses inflict mental suffering to others. Hinduism gives him plenty of opportunities. Hindus gain their Hindu kingdom of sadists by powerful Hindu thought. Every Hindu with “Hindu mind” has his Hind ideology to buttress his Hindu mental make-up. To possess a “Hindu mind” is to be mentally deranged. All those mentally deranged find it quite normal in the Hindu kingdom. But the Hindu new thought is neither a creative thought nor an energetic thought. New thought of a Hindu sage will inspire him to strengthen the Brahminical Social Order. Meditative detachment of a Hindu never results in the union with Dalits or with the other oppressed people but results only in the contempt for them.

HINDUS WITHIN CHRISTIANITY

Fruitful thought on social affairs and the woes of Dalits is never cultivated by a “Hindu mind”. The “Hindu mind” in the people of other faiths can’t even imagine to have a creative and fruitful thought. The “Hindu mind” in the best Christian theologians make them sterile and impotent. Christian Dalits suffer worse than “Hindu Dalits” mainly because of the oppressive theology of these theologians and the oppressive ideas of the powerful priests who never bother to cultivate energetic Christian thought in the place of Hindu thought. Hindu thought will never energize any person as it is psychologically oppressive, emotionally perverse, intellectually impotent and unproductive.

The “Hindu mind” never wishes to bring new hope into this world of death, division and despair. Productive thought always becomes a force that directs and guides the unthinking mass and motivates and inspires men from their historic slumber. Every man has an infinite energy of intellect. Mass has accumulated strength of thought. An energetic thought will never dry the intellectual vitality of the mass. When intellectual vitality of an individual is enervated the collection of such individuals feels drained of its collective energy.

AS A DESTRUCTIVE FORCE

The “Hindu mind” is well trained to prey on others to grow strong. At the expense of the intellectual vitality of another man, “Hindu mind” grows strong and robust. It doesn’t have any basic requisites to grow strong by itself. It knows not the basic law of growing strong. Growing strong at the expense of the vitality of others is transgressing against the basic principles of growth.

The “Hindu mind” knows not the principle of reverence which promotes the vitality of a motivated individual as well as the dormant vitality of a dull man. Hinduism stands for self-centredness and selfishness. Intellectual growth of another man is never tolerated by the followers of Hinduism. A Hindu wants to preserve his life at the expense of another man. “To grow, another must grow smaller. To be liked, another must be disliked. To be important, others must be little and ordinary”. So, the “Hindu mind” is a destructive force.

A reverent being considers another equally reverent. An irreverent being holds another as an object and expects others to hold him a reverent being. An irreverent being holds irreverent beings as reverent beings and reverent beings as irreverent beings. The “Hindu mind” holds itself as a symbol of reverence while it holds a Dalit as a symbol of aversion and ungodliness. Showing reverence to others means considering others as important. The “Hindu mind” never shows reverence to others while it considers itself as important. This exaggerated self importance of “Hindu mind” makes a Hindu suffer from paranoia. A paranoiac never allows liberty to others. An irreverent being feels that its liberty is at stake when it gives liberty to another being.

DALITS MUST NOT FIGHT

The “Hindu mind” takes liberty to tell Dalits what is good for a Hindu and what is bad for Dalits and what is bad for Dalits is to fight for liberty, equality and fraternity. The “Hindu mind” has great courage to deny any freedom of thought and freedom of speech. The Hindu courage never dares to think independently and never allows others to think independently.

The “Hindu mind” never respects the principles of growth and development. The growth and vitality of a man depends upon enormous opportunities for his hidden talent to be exploited. External motivational forces should be motivating the individual by creating conducive environment. No hostile force should be allowed to suppress the individual by preventing him from taking individual efforts. But the “Hindu mind” knows not this principle. Only at the expense of Dalits and shudras can it grow and it is growth.

LAND OF IDIOCY

The “Hindu mind” periodically spends its time, mind, energy to oppress others. All its energy is expended in oppressing the weak. Hinduism never teaches the “Hindu mind” to expend its energy for nobler purposes. The Hindu ways are tyrannical and so its energy runs into oppressive channels. Extraordinary energy of India is negatively used. The Hindu philosophy never civilizes Hindus and a civilized man is one who develops his own vital force while encouraging the vital force of another man.

India is a land of idiocy mainly because of this sorry state.

The Hindus have tremendous energy. But they keep using it to gain the energy of Dalits. Dalits are the most vital force on this earth. But their psychological energy has been systematically drained to serve Hinduism by Hindu force. Dalits are forced to liberate themselves from the yoke of Brahminism. The creative purpose for a Dalit is to liberate himself from Brahminism. Immense creative abilities and potentialities will be realized if a Dalit starts realizing this creative purpose of life and takes consistent and relentless efforts to realize his ambition.

BRAHMINISM AS OCTOPUS

Every Dalit will have an extraordinary strength of thought and mind if he is determined to fight against Brahminism. Brahminism is an octopus. Fighting against this octopus one needs enormous intellectual strength and communicative power. If requires enormous independent thought-exercise to comprehend the mysterious and myriad ways of this monster.

This dominant object or dominant ambition or aim of a Dalit is to annihilate caste and to create a casteless society. A Dalit intellectual like Dr. Ambedkar has to take immense efforts to make himself a genius. He should not squander his energy by leading a fragmentary life by engaging himself doing little and odd things in life. There is no unity of his life if he does little things. There is no individuality. Creativity is not possible without taking efforts to assert one’s own individuality.

DALIT SELF-HATRED

Repeated blows, constant failure and defeat in life down the centuries have killed all creative impulses of Dalits and also the sense of protest. Dalits are conditioned to lead a life of defeat and failure. Frustration is a psychological negative energy. Negative energy makes Dalits kill themselves as it saps the life impulses of Dalits. A man who is crushed by his own negative energy enjoys immense pleasure by punishing himself for what he is and what his life is and for the reason he is born. He enjoys self-pity. Reveling in self-pity is nothing less than self-rejection.

Dalit has learnt to long for pain and suffering. It is not a blow for him when he gets the news of the death of the most beloved. As he is already resigned to his miserable plight, he becomes a passive creature of failure. Failure acts on him. Fighting impulses are checked and abortive. He seeks companions of despair. He finds his group support of the frustrated. This group deadens all his vital force. The collection of frustrated Dalits form a community without any creative energy.

BROKEN INTO FRAGMENTS

The dehumanizing labour activity kills all his creative energy. Dalit hereditary division of labour inflicts pain on Dalit and so inflicts defeat on him. He has to do his labour activities which he dislikes. He never chooses his profession but is made to choose his hereditary labour activity. Inward freedom is killed. He has no reason to have pride in his labour activity. Though he does not do it to please his caste superiors, he is forced to please them. A scientist can produce a scientific creation as his sense of independence is respected and recognized. When his sense of pride is killed, he never feels himself. He is not himself. Dalit is a person an upper caste wanted him to be. He lives a fragmentary life. Fragmentary life never makes one a whole man. He is broken into fragments when he is made to lead a fragmentary life. A Dalit is forced to lead a life of bondage. His will is conditioned to assent to this demand of spiritual slavery.

CONVERSION

Spiritual freedom gives life to creative impulses. Freedom to choose one’s profession, freedom to question the beliefs and ideas that crush a Dalit, freedom to do things that give him a sense of pride — all are spiritual aspects of the spiritual freedom. “Spiritual slavery” is enjoyed by Dalits. He is conditioned to enjoy it. Spiritual freedom gives a man enormous opportunities to grow. Hinduism rejects the spiritual freedom.

Conversion from Hinduism will make him feel that he is free from hell. Conversion will help him find himself.

His mind gets ignited. For centuries a cave might be knowing no light of the sun and of the moon. The light of the torch dispels the gloom in a fraction of second. The light of Budhism will dispel the gloom of the psychological and intellectual cave of a Dalit. Hence all movements should aim at banishing the centuries of Hindu darkness in the psychological and intellectual cave of Dalits by the light of Budha.