DV witnesses Iranian cultural glory

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Bangalore: DV Bangalore representative Advocate Iqbal Ahmed Shariff was invited to Teheran (Iran) by the Iranian Culture House, Bombay, from May 30 to June 6, 2008.

The occasion was the 19th death anniversary of Imam Ayatolla Khumaini, when the Iranian Cultural Ministry organises annual cultural events and invites people, both Muslims and non-Muslims of all countries, to gather in one place and come to know each other. The Bombay batch had two non-Muslim women, one a Parsi and the other a Maratha. Others came from Lucknow and Calcutta. It was a gathering of ordinary people (not VIPs). There were about 1,000 comprising journalists, officials, businessmen, students, Blacks, Whites, Yellows and Browns. It was a rare event.

Only country: We were taken to Mashad, about a 1,000 km from Tehran. It has been a great Islamic cultural and academic centre since a 1,000 years. It received great importance after the Islamic revolution.

Iran is the only country in the world which is organising such international get-together. Of course, millions of Muslims gather at Makka during the Hajj but that is a religious occasion. Other Muslim countries must follow the Iranian example. After all money is not the problem. It is the purpose and will.

INDIA SHINING

Worrying scene of teacher shortage

Education is supposed to be the first step in nation-building. But India simply doesn’t have enough teachers — and we’re not even talking about quality. The country already faces a shortage of 8 lakh teachers in primary and middle schools. And the situation will get even worse. About 10% of teachers at this stage are above 55 years of age. With 6.5% teachers expected to retire or leave the profession each year, some 35 lakh teachers will be left at the primary and middle level by 2011 — a colossal short fall of almost 22 lakh teachers. That’s the worrying conclusion that emerges after looking at the latest figures available from the District Information System for Education (DISE)

—(Times of India, July 5, 2008)

*****

46% kids undernourished

New Delhi: India is worse than Bangladesh and Pakistan when it comes to nourishment and is showing little improvement in the area despite big money being spent on it, said the Planning Commission member, Ms. Syeda Hameed. “There has been an enormous infusion of funds. But the National Family Health Survey gives a different story on malnourishment in the country.”. Speaking at a conference on “Malnutrition an emergency”, she said even the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described malnourishment as the blackest market. According to India’s National Family Health Survey, almost 46% of children under the age of three are undernourished.

—(Deccan Chronicle, July 3, 2008)

*****

Khatri Sikh cheats Muslims

New Delhi: The UPA Govt. may be making tall claims on the minority welfare front, but a review carried out by the Govt. itself has found that minority community members figure a mere 5% of the total direct recruitments made by various ministries last year. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as part of the UPA’s much-touted 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities, had announced that special consideration would be given to the recruitment of minorities in Central and State services along with other public sector undertakings. Following this, the Department of Personnel Training (DoPT) had issued a circular in Jan.2007, asking all the ministries to consider minority candidates during recruitments in C&D categories.

—(Indian Express, June 26, 2008)

LETTERS TO EDITOR

Dr. Anil K. Sarkar, 8E - Cresthill Drive, Terre Haute, IN-47802, USA, (sarkar28@verizon.net): I only wish that the non-Muslim, non-Christian Indians, the upper and the lower caste Hindus would give up their Hinduism and unite with humanity to survive in the biological struggle. Hinduism is casteism. I read a few issues of the DV. I understand your deep pain and concern for the unfortunate Dalits of India. I spent most part of my life of (80 years), trying to understand why in spite of our wealth and scientific excellence, over 60% of our fellow human beings live in poverty and without any human dignity. Today, I believe that I know the correct answer and the possible remedies and the stupid and misguided human race has to follow my instructions, as given in my books and articles, if it wants to survive and live in peace. All of you are ignoring the truth that in the biological struggle, there was never any room for mercy, justice or fairness. In this cruel world only the fittest do survive and I do not believe in crying or complaining. Apparently none of you studied the history of the animal world and of our race. I explained why casteism and untouchability are present only in India and nowhere on earth, in my just finished book, India, A Land of Mystery and Misfortune. A million years ago the homo erectus people moved out of East Africa to populate the earth and a segment of them came to India. India was geographically isolated with mild climate and bounties of nature, not available in any other place. With isolation and no periodic invasion by barbarian tribes and with plenty of food, the people did not have to move looking for food and lived where they were born. And that is why 14 distinct linguistic provinces were created, an interesting fact neglected by all the historians and the intellectuals with no intellect at all. The people settled in India and started agriculture and domestication of the animals much earlier than anywhere on earth, but nobody wrote about it. The native Indians built cottage industries, the products of which were and still are the best in the world. Can a Brahmin make a Benarasi sari or a gold ornament? No, they never had any professional trade but lived on exploiting the working and productive natives. The nomadic Aryans came around 1500 BCE, conquered North India and gradually spread their Vedic religion all over India. There never was any Vedic culture but only exploitation of the defeated natives. As the ruling class, they kept the defeated natives at a distance and in poverty and ignorance as the low castes untouchables. I explained it all in my books. There was nothing unusual in it. The Europeans killed 10 million Red Indians of North America. They eliminated the natives of West Indies and of Tasmania. The native Indian “low castes” were defeated and subjugated by the stronger Aryans, whose descendants are the upper castes (Hindus) of today. So why do you cry? Twenty million Black Africans were turned into slaves and treated with utmost inhumanity. Dr. Ambedkar was a hero and fighter and the people should get inspirations from him. But please do not call him Babasaheb, like Bapuji or make him a god and ape the Hindus. And who was the ignorant fool who called the oppressed people as Dalits? Every human being is born with, “inalienable right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”, and why should anybody be called a Dalit? A human being trampled under the feet of the oppressor? By calling yourself a Dalit, you gave up your inalienable right and have been begging for some mercy or kind consideration from the oppressors. Let every oppressed person stand together with pride and start to fight for justice. The overwhelming majority of the European were treated as slaves, who suffered for many centuries, but they fought back and many died in the process. But finally, dignity of man and human rights came to Europe after revolutions, wars and deaths in the millions. Please stop this cry of the Dalits. Over 80% of the “Hindus” are outside the caste system and they have to stand erect with human dignity. From the childhood I never bent my head with indignity. Why should any non-caste Hindu even bother to go to any of those filthy temples housing a naked goddess, an erected penis, a monkey or some ugly figures? Why should anybody need a Brahmin for anything? Please organize your people to unite, stand erect with pride and demand human rights and never beg for anything.

Dr. Rajshree Saxena, PhD, MD-75, Sector-C, Aliganj, Lucknow, (rajshree_saxena@yahoo.com): It’s true that caste system has done immense damage to our society because it has blocked the growth of people. In spite of coming out of this social stigma, people are still forwarding this unhealthy thought to their coming generations. Since my childhood I have seen this discrimination, I feel bad that why a person is treated in such a way. But I was too young to understand all these things. Now I can easily understand what is all about and I completely disagree with this orthodox thought of society because when god, the creator, has not made any difference among his creation then who are we to discriminate. Hindus have several god-goddess. They adopt various ways to worship them, just to make them happy and take their blessings but why every time they forget that the proper way to serve them is to serve their creation i.e. human beings. A person has to be recognized by his knowledge and work, not by caste. There are lots of people in our society who are highly qualified and talented but just because they belong to “lower caste” they are always disqualified. I know a highly qualified person. He applied for the post of lecturer at various colleges but he didn’t even have the call letter just because he belonged to a “lower caste” and those colleges belonged to the upper castes. This shows that caste identity never fades. The question is why such a discrimination does not apply to upper castes? We proudly say that India is a developed country. How can we say that we are developed when we are mentally paralyzed? Development doesn’t only mean economic development. It includes mental development of the people. If a person has a healthy mind then only proper development will take place.

Irshadul Haq, Bank Colony, Loharwa Ghat, Alam Ganj, Patna - 800 007: The Muslim “Malik” community is included under Backward Castes in Bihar. We have strongly opposed the move and filing a PIL and protetst against this decision. Both the Backward Caste Muslim leaders, Ali Anwar and Ejaz Ali, have kept mum. We are trying to convince OBC organisations to join us.

Rare & out of print DV literature

(only photocopy charges mentioned)

1. Why Go for Conversion ?

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

1987 pp.22 Rs. 10

2. GANDHI - SAINT OR SINNER

Fazlul Huq

1992 pp.112 Rs. 75

3. THEY BURN

B. Shyam Sunder

1987 pp.115 Rs. 75

4. DALIT MOVEMENT IN KARNATAKA

V.T. Rajshekar

1978 pp.130 Rs. 100

5. BIRTH PANGS OF KHALISTAN

1985 pp.40 Rs. 25

6. WHY DALITS HATE HINDUISM

(Christian services to be written in letters of gold)

2004 pp.30 Rs. 25

7. MUSLIM WRITINGS IN DALIT VOICE

(Islamic perspective on Liberation & Dialogue in Contemporary India)

Yoginder Sikand

EPW Sept.2002 pp.10 Rs. 7

8. WE OR OUR NATIONHOOD DEFINED

M.S. Golwalkar

1939 pp.90 Rs. 75

9. THE ARYAN MYTH

(A history of Racist & Nationalist ideas in Europe)

Leon Poliakov

1974 pp.400 Rs. 250

10. HINDUISM: ESSENCE & CONSEQUENCE

Arun Shourie

1979 pp.400 Rs. 250

Write to Dalit Voice office

No VPP. Send money in advance.