ORISSA MIRACLE

Bangalore: Here is a wonderful example from the small, backward, tribal-dominated east-coast state of Orissa for the DV family members to follow. Orissa DV family members celebrated the silver jubilee at Bhubaneswar with great enthusiasm on June 10 after the disappointing Delhi’s “national” celebration on April 8 (DV June 16, 2007 p.6). Every district of Orissa was represented at the function. Despite its awful poverty and backwardness, Orissa DV family members have been always a class apart — in fact a model to the whole India. Besides, it also holds a lesson for us. Where our members living in metro cities, in large numbers and also highly paid, they should have been in the forefront of Dalit revolution. But we find them indifferent. However, in rural India, DV not only has good circulation but members very much active and kicking. The tragedy of city-dwelling Dalits is they are fast losing caste consciousness and getting Brahminised. Look at the revolutionary zeal of the Orissa Dalits. Within 1 1/2 months of the Bhubaneswar function, where the entire assembled members stood up and took a pledge to double the Orissa DV circulation, we received a total of 25 new subscriptions of which15 are from the one most backward district of Koraput — bordering Andhra Pradesh. DV has hope in rural India. Is urban India dying?

Madani out of jail but not out of danger

Bangalore: A great friend of DV, Abdul Nasser Madani (42) was released on Aug.1, 2007 from the Coimbatore Jail after detaining him for nine long years without a single charge proved. He had no connection whatsoever with the Feb.14, 1998 Coimbatore bomb explosions which itself was a Hindu terrorist plot. But he was arrested so that the upper caste rulers of the neighbouring Kerala could get rid of him from the state where he became the most popular leader of the poor Muslims, Dalits and all other oppressed and a bone in the throat of all political parties including the Muslim League.

Dalit-Muslim unity: His very first announcement after coming out of jail that he would work for Dalit-Muslim unity, which is also the mission of DV, must have chilled the hearts of Kerala’s ruling upper castes.

Every effort was made by Kerala’s Brahminical people to finish him. An attempt was made (1992) even to kill him in a bomb explosion in which he lost his one leg. The long imprisonment shattered his health itself — reduced to half his weight. Our Editor met him in the jail some years back.

Hindu tolerance: So much for the much publicised Hindu kindness, Hindu non-violence, Hindu tolerance.

Madani provides the standing example to prove to what extent the country’s ruling Brahminical forces can be merciless. With so much of hatred in the Hindu heart, how can “Hindu India” progress? It was our Editor who inaugurated his political party (People’s Democratic Party) at Calicut over a decade ago. But the inauguration never took place as Madani was arrested on the previous night and our Editor locked up in a Calicut hotel room. Millions of Muslims pouring into Calicut were blocked by the police on the outskirts of the city. And yet India is called world’s shining model of working democracy.

Worst caste-ridden state: Whether it was the Congress, CPI-CPM, Muslim League or any other party, Madani was a bone in their throat. Because, he wanted to end the permanent rule of Nairs, Brahmins and Syrians over Kerala — the worst caste-ridden state in India. And finally all the upper castes conspired to get Madani connected to the Coimbatore blast and managed to lock him up in a Tamil Nadu jail.

Neither the Supreme Court, India’s “free press” nor our human rightswalas raised a word against this outrageous action against an innocent leader of the oppressed. Every fighter for human rights will have to face Madani’s fate. Now that Madani is out, we have no reason to believe that he is out of danger. Brahminism does not believe in forget and forgive. Remember, it killed even their own “Father of the nation”.

Editor V.T. Rajshekar will visit Madani at Cochin on Aug.17 or 18.

INDIA SHINING

Collapse of elementary education

New Delhi: There are schools without buildings. And then there are schools without a classroom, or with just a single classroom. Or those that may have a building but with just a single teacher to cater to the needs of the entire school. Or worse still, with no teacher at all. Small wonder then that elementary education in the country is in a sorry state. When talking about a school, one of the basic requirements presumably would be the availability of a school building. Yet, as the study on “Elementary Education in India” (2005-06) done by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (Nuepa) says, of the total of 1.12 million elemntary schools (Class 1-8) from whom data was collected nearly 46,364 did not have a building. The government-managed schools had the dubious distinction of having the largest percentage (96.94) of building-less schools. And among the states figuring high on the list of having a substantial number of buildingless schools are Chhattisgarh with 7,505 schools, Jharkhand (7,839), MP (13,167), Rajasthan (5,433), AP (3,827) and Bihar (2,134).

—(Asian Age, July 30, 2007)

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Chaos on water & sanitation

New Delhi: While the UN agencies announce global programmes like “Health for All”, “Water and Sanitation for All”, “Education for All” to meet the challenges of development worldwide, they are unable to manage these global human development challenges. Now their latest slogan is millennium development goals (MDGs) to be met by 2015, which comprises eight goals that appear very simplistic on the face but are complex to achieve on the ground, given the multiple geographical, political and social conditions in different countries. For instance, goal number seven states “Halve the number of people without access to safe water and sanitation”. One of the flagship UN agencies, the UNICEF, has been in the business of providing water and sanitation services (WSS) for decades. And also the World Bank and UNDP. But countries like India and Bangladesh have huge problems not just in creating access to protected WSS but in tackling the issues of water quality and contamination. The UNICEF, over the decades, has installed millions of hand pumps, namely the “India Mark I” and shallow well hand pumps. However, with the shrinking underground water levels these pumps have remained defunct in many villages. Certain states like West Bengal have had detection of arsenic though not in the same level as in Bangladesh. In Karnataka too there are traces of iron and fluoride content in water especially in Bellary and mineral rich areas of Sandur. According to the Ministry of Water Resources even in 2004 many states had as many as 90% of the households without protected WSS.

—(Deccan Herald, July 30, 2007)

LETTERS TO EDITOR

Paramdeep Bhatia, London: I came across your website and I love it but at the same time I am so sad. I am British-born Sikh and I feel truly blessed to be born in a non-Hindu and non-Indian environment in which I could learn the real message of Guru Nanak to “recognise the human race as one” and feel truly free from bad Indian programming. But why am I sad? I was reading an article about Babasaheb Ambedkar in Dalit Voice and his vision to set the Untouchables free from Hinduism before India gained “independence”. We were very close to having 60 million embrace Sikhism. In today’s number that would make Sikhism 200 million+ and rival Budhism as the fourth biggest religion on the planet. Also 200+ million Sikhs in India (instead of 20 million) would have created a very different India than the one we have today with a completely different power base. Who would dare challenge a Sardar if there were 200 million of us, all promoting gender equality, racial equality, democracy, freedom of religion, hard work ethos, martial arts training etc. So what went wrong? What a shock that M.K. Gandhi managed to persuade the Sikh leadership that it would be a bad idea and the Sikh leadership being stupid blocked the conversion. That was the worst mistake the Sikh nation have ever made. So what can we do now in 2007? Well we can develop links with one another and we can try and help one another as much as possible. I personally cannot see Sikhism surviving in India without large numbers of people boosting Sikhism. (param.bhatia @hotmail.co.uk).

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Glad to note that even a young British-born Sardar had discovered the “mischief of the Mahatma” which he played by winning over the Brahmin-convert Master Tara Singh who was told that he would lose his leadership of the Sikh community, and it would be taken over by Babasaheb when he converted with millions of Punjabi Untouchables. Brahminical rulers of India continued their attacks on Sikhs by denying them a separate Sikh state, later by killing thousands of Sikhs in “Blue Star Operation” (1981), and now by setting up Dalit Sikhs against the Jat Sikhs. The Sikhs themselves have contributed a lot to the “Slow death of Sikhism” about which we are seriously worried — EDITOR.

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Parvez Khan, Bahnhofvorplatz-2a, 50667-Koln, Germany: We have undertaken several campaigns against “Fascist India” and we are distributing leaflets by hand, are also sending them by post to all Sikh and Lankan organizations all over Europe. We have printed the Khalistan map on A5 page and also the map of Tamil Nadu on A5 map and we are sending them to the German media, Lankan organizations etc. all over Europe. In the rest of the world, we are spreading this campaign through email. We are also sending this propaganda in the print form of the “Dirty Gandhis” (Hindus) in Europe also to give them some sleepless nights and irritated minds. This campaign will also send them the message that they have two more enemies and it would disintegrate their confidence to dust.

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Shakeel Ahmed, USA (Ahmeddalit@yahoo.co.in): This refers to my Letter in DV May 1, 2007 (p.8). We welcome the offer for a free and frank Dalit-Muslim dialogue. When our Editor criticises Muslims it benefits us greatly. Because he is an honest critic and his criticism has substance and depth. But we do not find such a factual analysis of Muslim situation in other Dalit writings. I myself am a social critic. Honest and constructive criticism is a science and an art. Hence we welcome it. But when you criticise a people without understanding their religion, culture, history and their psyche you make great blunders and lose credibility. Our Dalit brothers have in-depth knowledge of Hinduism. This is because the Hindus happen to be their prime enemy-oppressors and hence they make a good study of Hinduism. But when it comes to Islam and Muslims their writings show a lack of proper understanding of the subject. Why Dalits and Muslims need to know each other? The obvious reason is the need for a long lasting friendship, understanding and alliance. Since Muslims are basically a religious community they have a strong attachment to their religion. In order to have an effective dialogue with them you will have to understand both Islam and Muslims. Muslims have lost faith in their corrupt “secular leadership’ and this trend is gaining momentum in most parts of the Muslim world. Future Muslim leadership will belong to the pious Muslims. Western powers assume that common Muslims all over the Muslim world are secular but the fact is they are not. As a test you may ask this single question to any semi-educated Muslim:

What he thinks ensures success for a Muslim in this world and in the hereafter (i.e. life after death)?”

The standard reply will be:

The success in both the worlds depends on Muslims’ adherence to the Quran - individually and collectively.

As Dalit intellectuals display their lack of proper knowledge of Islam and Muslims, in my forthcoming letters I shall try to dispel their doubts one by one with sound argument and factual information. I shall try to show them the nature of their assumptions about Islam and Muslims where they are making mistakes. Also I shall try to enlighten them about Muslims’ past and present, their mistakes and their failures, about their right policies and reasons for their success in various spheres of life, specially about Islam’s reformatory (moral and social) and revolutionary characteristics from a scientific and practical point of view, rather than from the position of a preacher. This knowledge not only will help Dalits form an alliance with Muslims but also will revolutionise their thought and shall give them new insights in understanding human behaviour and ending lethargy that exist among our people. To press upon the significance of understanding Islam and Muslims, I am providing a few more reasons: We should know what kind of world we desire and in order to realise our goals we will have to take into our consideration the present national and international scenario and the changes that are taking place. The Muslim world is one important part of the international scenario. Muslims are feeling an urgent need of a strong Muslim world with special emphasis on scientific and technological research and development, realisation and establishment of a social system based on Islamic ideology and guided by a god-fearing righteous leadership, with direct and indirect participation of poor people in the political system. Only a strong Muslim world and a proper balance of power in the world will ensure peace in the world. The world will be spared of violence, wars, pain, misery and destruction. The greatest sin on earth is keeping ourself weak. We have seen when a nation is weak all the racist and greedy powers are tempted to crush such a nation by using overt and covert methods. They conspire to dominate it, control it, exploit it and to keep it weak (the modern history is replete with this kind of examples). What I emphasise is that we the oppressed (and denied human rights) peoples’ of the world should join hands with each other — our movement should be of global nature. Common people are good everywhere, but it is the racist governments led by the greedy multinational corporations (MNCs) that are causing all the trouble and violence in the world. We should follow the path shown by Editor Rajshekar. All the oppressed peoples denied human rights belonging to various cultures and ethnicity should come together and defeat these satanic powers of race, greed and profiteering condemned by the Greek philosophers, Budha, the biblical prophets, Jesus and the final prophet, Muhammad. These satanic forces are not only destroying human lives but are also destroying nature, ecological balance, the plant life, the marine life and the wild life. The entire creation is praying to god to get rid of these anti-Christ forces (Dajjal in Arabic). We can expect god’s mercy and help only when we the oppressed masses unite together forgetting our cultural differences and initiating dialogue to understand each other and to work together. To achieve this aim we must not follow the directives of corrupt religious establishments such as mullah establishment, organised Christian church or any other priestly institution. Neither shall we have any hope or expectations from any corrupt governments and regimes, Muslims or non-Muslim. If we do then we will lose the trust of our co-sufferers belonging to other religious and ethnic groups. The proposed movement should be a global movement of youths.