Unprecedented Violence in Bengal is the Logical result of Brahaminical Monopoly resultant in WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES!

Unprecedented Violence in Bengal is the Logical result of Brahaminical Monopoly resultant in WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE

TO

THE UNTOUCHABLES!

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time -FIVE HUNDRED  FIFTY NINE

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/

http://basantipurtimes.blogspot.com/

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Now watch BAMCEF Videos on YOUTUBE http://www.youtube.com/bamcefvideo

News Paper

http://www.mulnivasinayak.com

Unprecedented Violence in Bengal is the Logical result of Brahaminical Monopoly resultant in WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES!

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time -FIVE HUNDRED  FIFTY NINE

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/

http://basantipurtimes.blogspot.com/

Unprecedented Violence in Bengal is the Logical result of Brahaminical Monopoly resultant in WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES!

Our friend Sheetal Markam has graphically detailed the story of Aryan Brahaminical Venegeance in his TRI IBLIS Book series, E Books and Blog!

Arya-Brahmin Vengeance on Bengali-Tamil Dalits & Chakma Adivasi Indigenous Refugees

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Arya-Brahmin Vengeance on

Bengali-Tamil Dalits & Chakma Adivasi Indigenous Refugees

(Copyright-free E-Book)

[Earlier Printed in half yearly journal "Scientists for Social Change", edited by Sheetal Markam, Commander in Chief Gondwana Mukti Sena, India ]

Dedication

TERMS USED IN THIS E-BOOK

Parts of the E-Book

Ancient Foreign Refugees Who Have Became Oppressive Exploiter Rulers

Ancient Foreign Refugees Who Settled Happily In India

Tibetan Political Refugees

Post Independence Arya-Brahmin Refugees

Vengeance of Converted Arya-Brahmins Upon Indigenous Dalit-Bahujans

Arya-Brahmin Vengeance on Dalit-Buddhist Refugees in India

The Tamil Refugees of Shri Lanka

Where is Solution of These Arya-Brahmin Brutalities ?

http://sheetalmarkam.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/arya-brahmin-vengeance-on-bengali-tamil-dalits-chakma-adivasi-indigenous-refugees/



Respected VTR is exposing the TRUTH in Dalit Voice.
http://www.dalitvoice.org/

But our people, the Black Untouchables, the Aboriginal Indigenous Majority masses BONDED, ENSLAVED,PERSCUTED, DEGENERATED, DISLODGED, DEHUMANISED or Co Opted have been Uprooted form not only the Aboriginal Geopolitical Home land but also from History.

All History showcases are full of details of Aryan, Muslim or British Rule with Brahaminical Manipulated versions.

Pre Aryan, Non Aryan, Buddhist Period in Bengal and Aboriginal Indigenous Rule in Bengal NEVER Mentioned.

Full four Hundred years have been declared Drak AGE as Peasant and Tribal Insurrections, Chandal Movement, Chuar revolt and the Real Renaissance led by Untouchable Born Chandal Harichand Thakur and the Empowerment Movement led by Guruchand Thakur have been deleted.

NON Aryan NON Brahmin Folk Heritage is Academically Manipulated as Folklore, by product of Aryan Brahaminical bastarised religion.

Thus, our People have been habitual to feel glorified to identify themselves with false Brahaminial Biological roots and the Matua Movement also buys the theme of Harichand Thakur being the son of a Maithili Brahamin.

They have tried their best to defame JIJAU Mata and eventaually projected a Brahamin Kondidadu Ramdas as the biological father of Chhatrapati Shivaji.

They have already Brahaminised Lingyayat,DRAVID Movement. They have Brahaminised Sikhhism, Jainism, Buddhism, baul and sugfi sant clan and tradition.

In consequence, the Black Untouchables all over the South Asian Geopolitics and beyond have bought the idea that all of us are the offsprings of great Aryans and all communities were bred by some or other Saint or Brahamin.

Until Transfer of Power, in Bengal Brahmins NEVER did recognise the Black Untouchables as HINDU. But we have forgot the recentmost History and the reality of EXCLUSION is NEVER to be realised.

Since we falsely consider ourselves Aryan, the Micro Minority THREE Percent Brahamins have the majority support to MONOPOLISE every sphere of life in Bengal as well as India.

Jewish Zionist  Brahmin Aryans have Global UNIFIED  Nationality but we have only Brahaminised fragmented identity as well as Nationality thanks to CONGRESS and GANDHI which is further strengthened by Srategic Nuclear Realliance in US ISRAEL lead, War against Terror, AFPSA in the Himalayan region and OPERATION Green Hunt under POST MODERN CORPORATE ZIONIST LPG MAFIA MANUSMRITI Rule.

Lalgargh is not an EXCLUSIVE phenomenon.

It is the the theme replicated since the Vedic literture was written and the epics like Ramayan and Mahabharat were compsed. GEETA  to GEETANJALI, all Brahaminical literature insist on Sprititual SALVATION different from the Salvation sought by Gautam Buddha and Justify the KARMA Theory and the Caste System!

Gandhi was the Main CRUSADER to Justify Caste System and Manusmriti Rule as no one else but babasahib DR Bhimrao Ambedkar has proved very well.Bengalies do NOT read AMBEDKAR, Jyotiba Phule, Narayan Guru, AYYANKALI or Periyar. Brahamincally Brainwashed Bengalies across the Political border, yes, even in Bangladesh, REPLICATE ANGLO SAXON ZIONIST COLONIAL prespective.

They may connect themselves very easily with Vietnam or Cuba or nay part of the GLOBE, but they hate to interact with the Rest of the Geopolitics, say Bihar, Orissa, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra or Uttar Pradesh! Thus, the Anti Brahaminical Movement which began with Chandal Movement, the legacy of Buddhism and the History of Aboriginal Indigenous Rule, everything Anti Brahaminical Anti Aryan is DESPISED by the Brahaminised Bengal.

Hence, the SC, ST,OBC and Minorities LOVE to die to sustain the Brahaminical system. The story is repeated again and again.

They Indulge in Suicidal Violenc which KILLS themselves, Destroys themselves and  accomplishes the Agenda of Mass Destruction and ETHNIC Cleansing so glorified! It has been the case in SINGUR and NANIGRAM!

Now, our people are VICTIMISED in LALGARGH to sustain the Rotten Brahaminical Rule!

They use us as HUMAN Shield as the TMC and MAOIST Activists have done in SINGUR, Nandigram and Lalgarh and we BLEED!

We sacrifice ourselves in the War which is not our War!

But we are little interested in the heritage of National Liberation Movement led by our ancestors even during BRITISH Period known as Peasant and Tribal INSURRECTIONS.

This is the CHARSHMA of CONGRESS and Gandhi, the GREATEST EVER ZIONIST!

Muslim - Hindu Riots In India: speech by Waman Meshram: Bamcef

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BAMCEF: Poona Pact: Part 1

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07. Dr Ambedkar- Poona Pact

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06. Dr Ambedkar- Round Table Conference

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BAMCEF: OBC Reservation Speech by Mr. Waman Meshram. Part 1

bamcefvideo 15 videos Subscribe

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Bamcef: Why Gandhi Was killed?

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BAMCEF:DNA Report show how high caste people from india are foreigners

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BAMCEF: Poona Pact: Part 2

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BAMCEF - Jemini Kadu - Mulnivasi - Part 3

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8 villagers shot dead in Lalgarh

The villagers alleged that the goons had asked them to either pay or take up arms training to counter Trinamool Congress supporters. The villagers were fired at from a house in the camp when they took out a procession in the morning in protest against the order.
State Home Secretary G D Gautama said Maoists were not involved in the incident. He said the incident occurred during a clash between the Trinamool Congress and CPM supporters.
Sudip Bandopadhyay, Trinamool Congress chief whip in Parliament, described the incident as "genocide". He said on one hand CPM MPs were complaining to Chidambaram about the Trinamool Congress-Maoist nexus and on the other,  the party supporters were killing innocent villagers in Lalgarh without any reason. The Trinamool Congress leadership has faxed a message to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on the incident.
The Congress and the SUCI, a Left political party which has alliance with the Trinamool Congress, have called a 12-hour bandh in West and East Midnapore districts on Monday.
Centre worried over violence
The Centre had already expressed concern over the political clashes in West Bengal when the Assembly election is round the corner. Despite the Home Ministry warning, the state police administration seems to have completely failed to tackle the situation.
http://expressbuzz.com/nation/8-villagers-shot-dead-in-Lalgarh/237840.html

Poona Pact:
By now Ambedkar had become one of the most prominent untouchable political figures of the time. He had grown increasingly critical of mainstream Indian political parties for their perceived lack of emphasis for the elimination of the caste system. Ambedkar criticized the Indian National Congress and its leader Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, whom he accused of reducing the untouchable community to a figure of pathos. Ambedkar was also dissatisfied with the failures of British rule, and advocated a political identity for untouchables separate from both the Congress and the British. At a Depressed Classes Conference on August 8, 1930 Ambedkar outlined his political vision, insisting that the safety of the Depressed Classes hinged on their being independent of the Government and the Congress both:


We must shape our course ourselves and by ourselves... Political power cannot be a panacea for the ills of the Depressed Classes. Their salvation lies in their social elevation. They must cleanse their evil habits. They must improve their bad ways of living.... They must be educated.... There is a great necessity to disturb their pathetic contentment and to instill into them that divine discontent which is the spring of all elevation.


In this speech, Ambedkar criticized the Salt Satyagraha launched by Gandhi and the Congress. Ambedkar's criticisms and political work had made him very unpopular with orthodox Hindus, as well as with many Congress politicians who had earlier condemned untouchability and worked against discrimination across India. This was largely because these "liberal" politicians usually stopped short of advocating full equality for untouchables. Ambedkar's prominence and popular support amongst the untouchable community had increased, and he was invited to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London in 1931. Here he sparred verbally with Gandhi on the question of awarding separate electorates to untouchables. A fierce opponent of separate electorates on religious and sectarian lines, Gandhi feared that separate electorates for untouchables would divide Hindu society for future generations.


When the British agreed with Ambedkar and announced the awarding of separate electorates, Gandhi began a fast-unto-death while imprisoned in the Yeravada Central Jail of Pune in 1932. Exhorting orthodox Hindu society to eliminate discrimination and untouchability, Gandhi asked for the political and social unity of Hindus. Gandhi's fast provoked great public support across India, and orthodox Hindu leaders, Congress politicians and activists such as Madan Mohan Malaviya and Palwankar Baloo organized joint meetings with Ambedkar and his supporters at Yeravada. Fearing a communal reprisal and killings of untouchables in the event of Gandhi's death, Ambedkar agreed under massive coercion from the supporters of Gandhi to drop the demand for separate electorates, and settled for a reservation of seats, which although in the end achieved more representation for the untouchables, resulted in the loss of separate electorates that was promised through the British Communal Award prior to Ambedkars meeting with Gandhi which would end his fast. Ambedkar was later to criticise this fast of Gandhi's as a gimmick to deny political rights to the untouchables and increase the coercion he had faced to give up the demand for separate electorates. Bharat Ratna Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.
http://drambedkarji.blogspot.com/p/dr-ambedkar-ji.html

Lalgarh violence should not have happened: Buddhadeb

Press Trust of India, Updated: January 08, 2011 18:41 IST
Canning, WB:  West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today strongly disapproved of the firing in Lalgarh, allegedly by CPI (M) cadres, saying it should not have happened and asked all political parties to exercise restraint.

"What happened in West Midnapore yesterday was not good. If should not have happened. Killings and bloodshed must stop otherwise all development work will come to a halt. All political parties should observe restraint," the chief minister said while inaugurating a bridge over a river.

"We don't want violence. We don't want people to be killed. We will not allow killings. Killings must stop," he said.

Bhattacharjee said the state government wanted jobs for the poor and peace. Rediff.comTwitterNDTV SocialLive MessengerGmail BuzzPrint

"We want development work for those still living in darkness and in tears. Violence will destroy everything."

The Chief Minister's remarks came a day after West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan denounced the Lalgarh incident saying it was a "day of shame and sorrow" for the state and asked the state government to act before it reaches the "point of no return".


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Story first published:
January 08, 2011 18:34 IST

Tags: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Buddhadeb Lalgarh, Lalgarh violence

• Also See

Comments: Read|Post

• Lalgarh violence: Chidambaram summons Buddhadeb to Delhi
• 8 killed in Lalgarh, blame game begins
• West Bengal Governor hurt by Lalgarh violence
• Chidambaram writes to Buddadeb over Lalgarh violence
• Chidambaram's assessment far from impartial: Buddhadeb

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/lalgarh-violence-should-not-have-happened-buddhadeb-78001?cp

WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE

TO

THE UNTOUCHABLES

____________________________________________________________

"lt may be your interest to be our masters, but how can it be ours to be your slaves ? "

—THUCYDIDES.

______________________________________________________________

Contents

PREFACE
Chapter I : A strange event
Chapter II : A shabby show congress abandons its plan
Chapter III : A mean deal congress refuses to part with power
Chapter IV : An abject surrender congress bets an inglorious retreat
Chapter V : A political charity congress plan to kill by kindness
Chapter VI : A false claim does congress represent all ?
Chapter VII : A false charge are untouchables tools of the British ?
Chapter VIII : The real issue what the untouchables want
Chapter IX : A plea to the foreigners let not tyranny have freedom to enslave
Chapter X : What do the untouchables say? Beware of Mr. Gandhi!
Chapter XI : Gandhism the doom of the untouchables

APPENDICES

1

WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI

HAVE DONE TO

THE UNTOUCHABLES

Dedication

(11) And Naomi said, Turn again, my Daughters; why will ye go with me ? (12)  go your way. . . (14) And they lifted up their voice, and weft again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her, (15) And she said. Behold thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods ; return thou after thy sister-in-law. (16) And Ruth said. Intreat me not to leave them; or to return from following after thee ; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge ; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. (17) Where thou diest, will I die, and there will be buried; the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me"                   

I know how, when we used to read the Bible together, you would be affected by the sweetness and pathos of this passage. While you will be glad to read it again you will, I am sure, ask me what made me recall it in this connection. I wonder if you remember the occasion when we fell into discussion about the value of Ruth's statement "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." I have a clear memory of it and can well recall our difference of opinion, You maintained that its value lay in giving expression to the true sentiments appropriate to a perfect wife. I put forth the view that the passage had a sociological value and its true interpretation was the one given by Prof. Smith, namely, that it helped to distinguish modern society from ancient society. Ruth's statement " Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God" defined ancient society by its most dominant characteristic namely that it was a society of man plus God while modern society is a society of men only (pray remember that in men I include women also). My view was not then acceptable to you. But you were interested enough to urge me to write a book on this theme. I promised to do so. For as an oriental I belong to a society which is still ancient and in which God is a much more important member than man is. The part of the conversation which is important to me at this stage is the promise I then made to dedicate the book to you if I succeeded in writing one. Prof. Smith's interpretation had opened a new vista before me and I had every hope of carrying out my intention. The chances of developing the theme in a book form are now very remote. As you know, I am drawn in the vortex of politics which leaves no time for literary pursuits. I do not know when I shall be out of it. The feeling of failure to fulfil my promise has haunted me ever since the war started. Equally distressing was the fear that you might pass away as a war casualty and not be there to receive if I were to have time to complete it. But the unexpected has happened. There you are, out of the throes of Death. Here is a book ready awaiting dedication. This happy conjunction of two such events has suggested to me the idea that rather than postpone it indefinitely I might redeem my word, by dedicating this book which I have succeeded in bringing to completion. Though different in theme it is not an unworthy substitute. Will you accept it ?

B. R. A.

To,

F.

In Thy Presence is the Fullness of Joy.

PREFACE

"In 1892, there took place in England a new election to Parliament, in which the Conservatives headed by Lord Salisbury lost and the Liberals headed by Mr. Gladstone won. The remarkable thing about this election was that notwithstanding the defeat of his party at the polls. Lord Salisbury—contrary to Parliamentary convention—refused to surrender his office to the leader of the Liberal Party. When Parliament assembled, the Queen delivered the usual gracious speech from the throne containing the legislative programme of Lord Salisbury's Government and the usual address to Her Majesty was moved from the Government side. Lord Salisbury's Government was an illegitimate Government. It was a challenge to the fundamental principle of the British Constitution, which recognised parliamentary Majority as the only title deed for a Party's right to form a Government. The Liberals took up the challenge and tabled an amendment to the address. The amendment sought to condemn Lord Salisbury's Government for its insistence on continuing in office, notwithstanding the fact that it had no majority behind it. The task of moving the amendment was entrusted to the late Lord (then Mr.) Asquith. In his speech in support of the amendment, Mr. Asquith used the now famous phrase—" Causa finita est: Roma locuta est." (Rome has spoken and the dispute must end). The phrase was originally used by St. Augustine but in a different context. It Was used in the course of a religious controversy and had come to be used as a foundation for Papal Sovereignty. Mr. Asquith used it as a political maxim embodying the basic principle of Parliamentary Democracy. Today it is accepted as the fundamental principle on which Popular Government rests, namely, the Right of a Political Majority to Rule. It told instantaneously against Salisbury's Government and must tell against all parties who fail at the polls wherever Parliamentary Democracy is in operation.

I was reminded of this maxim when the results of the Elections to the Provincial Legislatures in India, which took place in February 1987 under the Government of India Act, 1985, were announced. Congressmen did not actually say "Causa finita eat : India locuta est." But so far as the parties, which had opposed the Congress in the Electiohs, were concerned, that is what the results of the Elections seemed, to proclaim. Having led the Untouchables against the Congress for. full five years in the Round Table Conference and in the Joint Parliamentary Committee, I could not pretend to be unaffected by the results of the Elections. To me the question was: Had the Untouchables gone over to the Congress ? Such a thing was to me unimaginable. For, I could not believe that the Untouchables—apart from a few agents of the Congress who are always tempted by the Congress gold to play the part of the traitor—could think of going over to the Congress en masse forgetting how Mr. Gandhi and the Congress opposed, inch by inch up to the very last moment, every one of their demands for political safeguards. I had therefore decided to study the Returns of the election that took place in 1937. .

While I was convinced that such a study was of great necessity from the point of view of the Untouchables, the work proceeded at a snail's pace. This was due to three causes. The work had to be kept aside for some time to give precedence to other literary projects, the urgency of which demanded a degree of priority which it was not possible to refuse. Secondly, the Blue Book on the Election Results of 1987, which was submitted to Parliament soon after the elections had taken place and which is the primary source for figures regarding the elections, proved inadequate and insufficient for my purpose. It does not give separately figures showing how the Scheduled Castes electors voted and how many votes the Scheduled Caste candidates got. It gives figures showing how electors in different constituencies voted, without making any distinction between Hindu voters and the Scheduled Castes voters. Circular letters had therefore to be issued to the various Provincial Governments requesting them to send me the figures showing distribution of voting by Scheduled Caste electors and the number of votes secured by each Scheduled Caste candidate. This inevitably delayed the work.. Thirdly, the examination of these election returns proved a very laborious task as the statistical tables given In the Appendices to this book will show.

The work thus lingered on. I regret very much this delay. For I know how much mischief has been done by the Congress during the interval. The Congress has advertised the election results to bolster up its claim to represent the Untouchables. The main point in the advertisement is that out of 151 seats assigned to the Scheduled Castes the Independent Labour Party which was organised by me got only 12 seats and the rest of the seats were captured by the Congress. This mess is served out from the Congress kitchen as conclusive proof to show that the Congress represents the Untouchables. This false propaganda seems to have gone home in some quarters. Even a man like Mr. H. N. Brailsford has reproduced in his 'Subject India' this absurd Congress version, without any attempt at verification and with apparent acceptance of its truth. I am sure that the results of the elections as set out in this book will hit the nail squarely on the head of this false propaganda. For, the Congress version of the results of the election is an utter perversion. As a matter of fact the results of 1937 Election conclusively disprove the Congress claim to represent the Untouchables. Far from supporting the Congress version the results of the Election show : (1) that out of 151 the Congress got only 78 seats; (2) that the Untouchables in almost every constituency fought against the Congress by putting up their own candidates; (8) that the majority of 78 seats won by the Congress were won with the help of Hindu votes and they do not therefore in any way represent the Scheduled Castes ; and (4.) that of 151 seats those won by the Congress in the real sense i.e., with the majority of votes of the Scheduled Castes, were only 88. As to the Independent Labour Party it was started in 1987 just a few months before the elections. It functioned only in the Province of Bombay. There was no time to organise branches in other Provinces. Elections on the ticket of the Independent Labour Party were fought only in the Province of Bombay and there the Independent Labour Party for from being a failure obtained an astonishing degree of success. Out of the 15 seats assigned to the Scheduled Castes in Bombay Presidency it captured 18 and in addition it won 2 general seats. I am therefore glad that at long last I have succeeded in completing the work which proves beyond the shadow of doubt that the story that the Congress captured all the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and that the Independent Labour Party was a failure, is a wicked lie. I trust that the book will prove interesting and instructive for all those who are interested in the subject and who desire to know the truth.

Before closing this preface, I wish to express my gratitude to those from whom I have received assistance in one form or another. I am grateful to the Provincial Governments for the troubles they have taken in responding to my circular and sending me additional facts and figures which I had called for. My thanks are also due to Mr. Karan Singh Kane, b.a., m.l.a., at one time, Parliamentary Secretary in the U. P. Congress Government, for the help he has rendered in the most laborious task of preparing the tables."

The reader who reads the above preface and compares it with the table of contents will at once find that the book deals with topics which lie far outside its boundary. The curious may like to know how the foregoing part of the preface is related to the table of contents. The explanation lies in the fact that the book in its present final form is quite different from what it was in its original form. In its original form it covered in very brief compass matter now dealt with on a vastly bigger scale in Chapters IV, V, VI, VII and IX and the statistical appendices. The foregoing part of the preface belonged to the book in its original form. That is why I have put it in inverted commas. The curious may also like to know why the final form of the book came to be so different from the original. The explanation is quite simple. The proofs of the book in its original form were seen by a friend and co-worker. He was dissatisfied with the scope of the book and insisted that it is not enough to deal with election results to expose the Congress claim to represent the Untouchables, I must do more. I must expose the efforts of the Congress and Mr. Gandhi to improve the lot of the Untouchables for the information of the Untouchables and also of the foreigners whom the Congress had deluded into accepting its side by misrepresentation of facts. Besides the difficulties arising out of the fact that the book was already in proof form, this wan a tall order and appeared to be beyond me having regard to other claims on my time. He would not, however, give way and I had therefore to accept his plan. The original work which would have been about 75 pages in print had to be completely recast and enlarged. The book in the present form is a complete transformation. It records the deeds. of the Congress and Mr. Gandhi from 1917 to date in so far as they touch the problem of the Untouchables. Much is written about the Congress, far more about Mr. Gandhi. But no one has so far told the story of what they have done about the Untouchables. Everyone knows that Mr. Gandhi values more his reputation as the saviour of the Untouchables than his reputation as the champion of Swaraj or as the protagonist of Akimsa At the Round Table Conference he claimed to be the sole champion of the Untouchables and was not even prepared to share the honour with anyone else, I remember what a scene he created when his claim was contested. Mr. Gandhi does not merely claim for himself the championship of the Untouchables. He claims similar championship for the Congress. The Congress, he says, is fully pledged to redress the wrongs done to the Untouchables and argues that any attempt to give political safeguards to the Untouchables is unnecessary and harmful. It is therefore a great pity that no detailed study of these claims by Mr. Gandhi and the Congress has been undertaken so far.

With the Hindus who have been blind devotees of Mr. Gandhi this study, although it is the first of its kind, will not find favour: indeed it is sure to provoke their wrath. How can it be otherwise when the conclusion arrived at is " Beware of Mr. Gandhi" ? Looking at it from a wider point of view, there is no reason for the Hindus to be enraged about it. The Untouchables are not the only community in India which thinks of Mr. Gandhi in these terms. The same view of Mr. Gandhi is entertained by the Muslims, the Sikhs and the Indian Christians. As a matter of fact, the Hindus should cogitate over the question and ask: why no community trusts Mr. Gandhi although he has been saying that he is the friend of the Muslims, Sikhs and the Scheduled Castes and what is the reason for this distrust ? In my judgment, there cannot be a greater tragedy for a leader to be distrusted by everybody as Mr. Gandhi is today. I am however certain that this is not how the Hindus will react. As usual, they will denounce the book and call me names. But as the proverb says: "The caravan must pass on, though the dogs bark." In the same way, I must do my duty, no matter what my adversaries may have to say. For as Voltaire observed: Who writes the history of his own time must expect to be attacked for everything he has said, and for everything he has not said : but these little drawbacks should not discourage a man who loves truth and liberty, expects nothing, fears nothing, asks nothing and limits his ambition to the cultivation of letters."

The book has become bulky. It may be said that it suffers by reason of over-elaboration and even by repetition. I am aware of this. But I have written the book especially for the Untouchables and for the foreigners. On behalf of neither could I presume knowledge of the relevant facts. For the particular audience I have in view, it is necessary for me to state both facts as well as arguments and pay no regard to the artistic sense or the fastidious taste of a cultivated and informed class of readers.

As it is my intention to make the book a complete compendium of information regarding the movement of the Untouchables for political safeguards, I have added several appendices other than those of statistical character. They contain relevant documents both official and non-official which have a bearing upon the movement. Those who are interested in the problem of the Untouchables will, I believe, be glad to have this information ready at hand. The general reader may complain that the material in the Appendices is much too much. Here again, I must state that the Untouchables are not likely to get the information which to the general reader may be easily accessible. The test adopted is the need of the Untouchables and not of the general reader.

One last word. The reader will find that I have used quite promiscuously in the course of this book a variety of nomenclature such as Depressed Classes, Scheduled Castes, Harijans and Servile Classes to designate the Untouchables. I am aware that this is likely to cause confusion especially for those who are not familiar with conditions in India. Nothing could have pleased me better than to have used one uniform nomenclature. The fault is not altogether mine. All these names have been used officially and unofficially at one time or other for the Untouchables. The term under the Government of India Act is 'Scheduled Castes.' But that came into use after 1985. Before that they were called 'Harijans" by Mr. Gandhi and 'Depressed Classes' by Government. In a flowing situation like that it is not possible to fix upon one name, which may be correct designation at one stage and incorrect at another. The reader will overcome all difficulties if he will remember that these terms are synonyms and represent the same class.

I am grateful to Professor Manohar Chitnis for the preparation of the Index and to Mr. S. C. Joshi for help in correcting the proofs.

B. R. AMBEDKAR.

24th June 1945.

22, Prithviraj Road,

New Delhi.

                                                                                                  Chapter I
http://www.ambedkar.org/ambcd/41A.What%20Congress%20and%20Gandhi%20Preface.htm
SECRET DOCUMENT ON ZIONIST CONSPIRACY

Did Jews force British grant independence to make "Jews of India" rulers ?

Arnold Spencer Leese (1878-1956), one of the most respected British citizens, a determined fighter against British rulers being manipulated by Jews to join the war against a fellow Christian Germany, has written an article, "Destruction of India - its cause and prevention".
In this we get the shocking information that the so-called independence given to India (1947) was a conspiracy of the Jews then controlling Britain to weaken the British Christian rulers on the eve of the World War-II and also to favour their Brahminical cousins by making them rulers of independent India.
The article is included in The Leese Collection (2007) published by the Historical Review Press, Uckfield, Sussex, England.
Jews controlled Britain: Our Editor was given a copy of the book when he met the owners of the Historical Review Press at Uckfield, Sussex.
Leese says Britain then was fully under the control of the Jews. Nay. London was the very capital of the entire Jewish world. The British Foreign Secretary, A.J. Balfour, a Jew, handed over the Muslim (Arab) Palestine to Jews (photocopy of the Leese book available with DV, pp.220).
Leese in his chapter on India displays very intimate knowledge of the country. With a "number of conflicting religions" Hinduism is nothing but caste system. He is right.
Muslims, Sikhs praised: There was absolutely no democratic spirit. The largest minority was the Muslims, which has no caste system, forming 20% of the population. He pays tributes to Sikhs for being a great "fighting nation" famous for its military discipline. Muslims outclass the Hindus in fighting qualities.
"But the vast majority of Hindu are of servile type", incapable for self-defence.
There is no change in the situation of this servile class even after 64 years of "independence".
Did Jews favour Brahmin: Leese is very clear that the Jews were behind forcing Britain to grant independence to India "to weaken Britain". However, he is not clear if the Jewish pressure on Britain was intended to make Brahmins, the "Jews of India", the rulers of the country.
The Jews being a brilliant community might have been aware of their cousins controlling India but Leese does not say it.
He said the British brought to India civilisation, honesty, security. They stopped widow-burning (sati), eradicated famine, provided efficient railway system, postal services, a system of Justice. He is right. He warns "all this will be destroyed by dragging India into a Jew-engineered war of our own".
Humbug of Indian nationalism: The article of Leese was written with particular reference to the White Paper which proposed democracy leading to self-rule. "The rule of India is to be handed over to Indians", meaning the "Jews of India".
The author has rightly said the so-called "Indian nationalism is sheer humbug, there is no Indian nation, but only a number of factions, each anxious to plunder and control others..".
Prophetic words: How true is this statement. We in this "independent" India know the truth of this statement after suffering under the Brahminical rule of 64 years.
The author then writes some prophetic words: "The only ones who want to get rid of the British are those who hope to step into their jobs which they will not be able to keep for two months".
Yes. The British left. And we witnessed a big bloodbath after partition. "Hindu India" then passed into the hands of Brahminic blood hounds. Ever-lasting exploitation has been the order of the day ever since the British left, making many thinking people to conclude that British imperialism was much, much better than the brutal Brahminical terrorism.
Dr. Ambedkar has dealt with this subject in his fantastic book, What Congress & Gandhi Have Done to Untouchables (photocopy available with DV).
Anarchy grips India: The author has predicted anarchy throughout India. Yes, that is what we are witnessing today.
The author says the White Paper for India was a Jewish product. The motive behind this paper was to scuttle the power of British White Christians.
The easiest way to smash the British empire was to strike at it in India by reducing the power of the British.
Annie Besant sent to India: The architect of this conspiracy was E.S. Montagu, Secretary of State for India from 1917. He "released Mrs. Annie Besant, a prominent mischief-maker and in November went to India in person".
Annie Besant, a pretty British young women, later became the president of the Congress Party, India's original Brahminical party, and the Brahmins cultivated her as their best friend.
She established her secretive Theosophical Society, which is part and parcel of the Zionist empire and packed all Brahmins into the Congress Party. Every big city in India had its Theosophical Society which is part of the Jewish secret societies. She groomed Brahmin leaders to take control of India as soon as the British left.
Brahmin domination: Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy, who was a top leader of the Congress Party in the then Madras Presidency, resigned from the party unable to tolerate the Brahmin domination. Leese says the White Paper and "Indianisation" of the Army are both the product of Jewish rule in India (meaning Brahminical rule).
Top Jews were sent to India: D. Mayers, Strakosch and Schuster.
Jewish master plan: Leese then puts an important question: "Why does the Jew want democracy in India while opposing it in Palestine? Because democracy would lose India for Britain and would lose Palestine for Jew, where he is small minority".
Leese finally argues that the British rule must be continued in India in the interest of the overwhelming slave races — meaning SC/ST/BCs (65%).
This is the first time we are hearing that the pressure to grant "independence" to India came from the Jews who were then controlling Britain. The Jewish hold on Britain, however, continues even to this day.
Annie Besant mischief: It is not clear from the book if Leese had visited India. Most probably not. Had he visited India he would have found out the mischief played by Annie Besant and her Brahmin coterie.
In the book he clearly says Annie Besant was the Jewish nominee. We have evidence about her involvement in handing over the country to the "Jews of India". She was the darling of the Brahmins. Though a White Christian she was not liked by the British Christian rulers then in India. She collected money, organised Brahmins to launch all sorts of attacks against the British.
It is from the Leese book that we learnt for the first time that the move to grant "independence" to India was a Jewish conspiracy. Why will the Jews insist upon it unless they had definite proof that the India would be in the hands of their blood brothers?
Role of Gandhi: Lot of things are kept secret. The role of Gandhi in South Africa which was then fully under Jews. Why did Gandhi shift from S. Africa to India? Did the Debeers, the world famous Jewish diamond merchants who controlled S. Africa and handled Nelson Mandela, the Jewish stooge, had any role?
Gandhi, though a Bania, was a great follower of Brahminism. His close connections with G.D. Birla and the Bajajs, both Banias who later became multi-millionaires with the blessings of Gandhi, will give us lot of clue about the role of Jews and the "Jews of India".
Lot more research has to be done to throw light on the role of Jews and "Jews of India" in enslaving India and bringing it under the sway of Zionist Israel.
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/jan2011/editorial.htm

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Gandhi, the Untouchable

Artist J Nandakumar had his show cancelled because he dared to show Gandhi trampling on Dalit rights. He fights on

1

BY Subhra Mazumdar EMAIL AUTHOR(S)

TAGGED UNDER | Dalit | Mahatma Gandhi

ICON
A group exhibition of contemporary Indian artists, this is modern India's tribute to the 'ahimsa man'. "To most artists, Gandhi's thoughts have travelled through how he informed their lives,'' says curator Rahul Bhattacharya. Debanjan Roy, for instance, says he painted his Gandhi Walking Dog (left) in red as Gandhi was the first victim of terrorism. "Nowadays, such killings in West Bengal and elsewhere have become daily affairs," he says Gallery Kynkyny Art, Bangalore, till October 15
The image of the Father of the Nation has acquired an iconic significance with sacrosanct connotations. And any artist who chooses to move away from this iconic formula ventures into perilous territory. This was revealed in the recently banned exhibition of the works of artist J Nandakumar at the Nehru Centre Gallery, Mumbai. "For the first three days, the exhibition carried on without any disturbance, when all of a sudden, things took a different turn," says this Aurangabad-based artist.
Known for depicting exploitative tendencies in society, Nandakumar's works examine societal mores with a discerning brush. Thus it is that in the show, he had included his work Blind Faith, taking as his theme a practice of worship prevalent in parts of Karnataka, wherein a nude male prostrates himself before the goddess as part of a ritual observance. "Someone viewed my exhibition and warned the organisers that unless they removed the objectionable painting, he would organise a protest morcha. The Nehru Centre, giving in to the pressure, requested me to remove the painting. When I tried explaining my point of view, that my art is a reflection of my personal idea about things in society, they became even more insistent."
Things got further vexed when the organisers came back with yet another corollary, saying that a painting on Gandhi, Gandhi (After Pune Karar), should also be removed. In this particular painting, says YS Alone of the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, "Gandhiji's stick is converted into a trident at the upper end, whereas the lower end is a lance piercing the body of a Dalit, signifying how he killed the political rights of Dalits in the country." He asserts that Nandakumar is striking at the core of Brahminical cultural nationalism.
In the catalogue to the exhibition, Alone states that Nandakumar 'prefers to challenge the conventional notion of [the] image of Gandhi not only as the Father of the Nation, but also makes a daring attempt to deconstruct the image of Gandhi through his personal understanding that has a legacy of Dr Ambedkar.'
For the artist, the inspiration for this painting came about after reading details of the Poona Pact, a 1932 agreement between Ambedkar and leaders of upper caste Hindus over the former's demand for a separate electorate for 'untouchables'. Ambedkar is said to have agreed to this compromise solution only because of the tremendous pressure exerted by Gandhi's vehement opposition to the separate electorate. Believing it would disintegrate Hindu society, he had gone on an indefinite hunger strike in protest.
Says the artist, "On reading the Pune Karar, I felt that Gandhiji was no longer an embodiment of peace, as I had earlier thought him to be. This led me to express my ideas in the form of a painting. So when the organisers asked me to withdraw the painting from the show, I gave them two options—cancel my exhibition altogether, or let it continue in its present way. The outcome was inevitable."
But the incident has been no dampener for this free-thinking and expressive artist. As he points out, the fallout of this image has laid the ground for a rearing form of protest. "In my home town of Aurangabad, I have found several supporters of my point of view, and they have joined hands with me to condemn the withdrawal of an exhibition on a single telephone call received by the authorities. In my own capacity, I will continue to do a series of paintings on the manner in which I conceive
the Gandhian image that has taken root in my mind, where Gandhiji has ceased to be the apostle of peace that I had earlier nurtured."
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/arts/gandhi-the-untouchable
Gandhi & Dalits
Dr Murugu Dorai

HATRED IS  A  NEGATIVE FEELING  FINDING NO PLACE  IN  A  GOOD HEART. SO WE WOULD RATHER ASK   COULD DALITS EVER LOVE GANDHI OR  REGARD HIM AS A FRIEND OF OR  A  PERSON OF GOODWILL TOWARDS  DALITS?

Our feelings of love or dislike must be based upon historical facts. Every one knows that Gandhi was up against racial discrimination in South Africa before coming to India. 1. Gandhi entered Indian politics in 1919 and soon captured the congress. He made congress a mass organization and launched a Constructive Programme of social amelioration known as Bardoli Programme, in 1922 ; to finance this programme he started a fund of one crore and 30 lakhs of rupees, known as "Tilak Swaraj Fund" out of which a sum of 49 1/2 lakhs was allotted to Bardoli Programme which included uplift of the untouchables also. The congress proposed to start a separate fund of 5 lakhs and then reduced it to 2 lakhs for the amelioration of the untouchables. Only two lakhs for 60 million Untouchables! Yet, only 43,381 rupees were actually spent! Seeing that the congress was not really sincerely interested in this programme Swami Shradhanand sanyasi resigned from the subcommittee which, not convened even once, was dissolved and then this task was handed over to Hindu Mahasabha which had the least interest in this programme of uplifting the untouchables. Thus the congress washed away their hands from this program. Ref: DR BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Vol 9. What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables.  ps 17- 39 Dr MURUGU DORAI, "Ambethkar kaappiyam", Epic (Tamil) of Dr Babasaheb  Ambedkar's Biography, Part 2,  ps  221-222. SEEING THIS, COULD THE DALITS EVER PROFESS LOVE  FOR  GANDHI OR REGARD HIM AS A MAN OF SINCERE  GOODWILL TOWARDS  DALITS? 2.  "WAR WITH GANDHI"  of  Dhananjay Keer's Biography of Dr Babasaheb describes their first meeting at Mani Bhavan on 14.8.1931 and how Gandhi developed the  animosity towards Dr Babasaheb. Later he  opposed Dr. Babasaheb's stand at the  2nd RTC. At the 2nd RTC  Gandhi claimed that  he was the only person qualified to represent and speak on behalf the untouchables,    claiming that he had lived with them, & shared their joys and sorrows with them.  He refused to acknowledge Dr  Babasaheb as the true representative of the untouchables.   He  said that the welfare  of the  untouchables  was dearer to him than his own life! He said "I will not bargain  away their rights for the kingdom of the whole world.".  But he agreed to give the Muslims, Sikhs and Christians separate electorates but   other than ordinary  right to adult franchise he vehemently refused to give any other  special   privileges  such as separate electorate to the Depressed Classes. He secretly agreed to give the Muslims all  their 14 demands; in return he wanted them to oppose Dr Babasaheb's demands at the 2nd RTC. When finally they could not arrive at   a decision as regards the minority problem,   they submitted a memorandum  to accept the British Prime Minister's decision and Gandhi also signed it. But later when the PM gave his  decision, Gandhi refused to accept it and went  on fast unto  death!   Ref: Dr BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR WRITINGS AND SPEECHES  Vol. 2  Ps  600 -672. Dr MURUGU DORAI, "Ambethkar kaappiyam", Epic (Tamil) of Dr Babasaheb  Ambedkar's Biography, Part 2,  pages 236-237.     COULD THE DALITS LOVE  OR  REGARD SUCH A  GANDHI AS THEIR   FRIEND OR WELL WISHER? 3  When Gandhi returned to Bombay on 28.12 1931,eight thousand untouchables, males and females at 2.30 in the shivering cold of early morning  demonstrated with  black flags against   Gandhi at the Mole Station! Ref. Dhananjay Keer, DR AMBEDKAR   Life And Mission.  Ps 191-192 Ref. Ref. Dr MURUGU DORAI, "Ambethkar kaappiyam", Epic (in Tamil) of Dr. Babasaheb  Ambedkar's Biography, Part 2,  pages 244-246. COULD ANY DALIT TODAY PROFESS LOVE FOR THAT GANDHI?   4. After returning  to Bombay, the only thought that fully occupied Gandhi's mind  was how to prevent the Untouchables from getting from the British what Dr Babasaheb had demanded. He voluntarily wrote to the then India Minister Sir Samuel Hoare on 11.3.1932,. He wrote  "I respectfully inform His Majesty's Government that in the event of their decision creating separate electorate  for the Depressed Classes, I must fast unto death" Sir Samuel Hoare replied that "we intend  to give any decision that may be necessary solely and only upon the merits of the case." The Communal award was announced on 17.8.1932 Gandhi wrote to the PM saying  "I have to resist your decision with my life. The only way I can do so is by declaring a perpetual fast unto death from food of any kind save water with or without salt and soda..." The PM replied on 8.9.1932 explaining the Govt's duty  to "safeguard  what we believed to be the right of the Depressed Classes to a fair proportion of representation in the legislatures..  the Govt's decision stands and that only agreement of the communities themselves can substitute other electoral arrangements...";  Finally PM urged, "ask yourself seriously the question whether it really justifies you in taking the action you contemplate" Yet Gandhi ignored the fact that as a signatory to the memorandum, he should  accept whatever decision the PM had taken , and  went on fast unto death! Ref. Dr BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR WRITINGS AND SPEECHES    Vol  9.What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables.  ps 77 -87. Dr MURUGU DORAI, "Ambethkar kaappiyam", Epic (Tamil) of   Dr  Babasaheb  Ambedkar's Biography, Part 2,  pages 270-284.     COULD ANY  DALIT  FEEL  THAT GANDHI  WAS  A  FRIEND OR  A WELL WISHER OF DALITS? 5. Gandhi started his fast on 20.9.1932.  Dr Babasaheb  issued a statement on the  19th instant. Every Dalit must read those 6 pages of statement issued to the press. What would have happened to the then 60 million Dalits, if anything had happened to Gandhi's life? Dr Babasaheb said "whether he knows it or not, the   Mahatmas' act will result in nothing but terrorism by his followers against the   Depressed Classes all over the country.... If Mr Gandhi coolly reflects on the  consequences of his act, I very much doubt whether he will find this victory  worth having....the Mahatma is releasing reactionary and uncontrollable forces, and is  fostering the spirit of hatred between  the Hindu community and the Depressed Classes.." Dr Babasaheb ended his statement thus: "I am prepared to consider the proposals of the Mahatma. I however trust the Mahatma will not  drive me to the necessity of  making a choice between his life and the rights of  my people. For I can never consent to deliver my people bound hand and foot  to the Caste Hindus for generations to come." To save Gandhi from sure death, a conference of  Hindu leaders was held at the hall of the Indian Merchants in Bombay on 19.9.1932 under the president ship of  Pandid Madan Mohan Malaviya.  Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar said there,  "..secure Gandhi's alternative proposal... But one thing is decided. To save Gandhi's life I would not be a party to any proposals that would be against the interests of my people" The next day, when Dr Babasaheb was told that Gandhi had no personal objection to the reservation of seats for the Depressed Classes, he told the conference "It has fallen to my lot to be the villain of the piece. But I tell you I shall not deter from my pious duty, and betray the just and legitimate interest of my people even if you hang me on the nearest lamp-post in the street.."    63 years old Gandhi was without food for three days, lying on the white color painted iron cot under the mango tree, at the Yeravda Prison, his body very weak, and his voice sinking low to muttering.  The question of duration of primary election and referendum to decide the duration of reserved seats  was hanging undecided. Dr Babasaheb insisted that  the question of reserved seats should be settled by referendum of the Depressed Classes at end of 25 years. But Gandhi said  with a tone of finality  "Five years or my life!" Later it was decided to make the agreement without  the condition of referendum. Thus the Poona pact was signed. What Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar felt at that moment? Dr Babasaheb says " No man was placed in a greater and graver dilemma than I was then. It was a baffling situation. I had to make a choice between two different alternatives. There was before me the duty, which I owed as a part of common humanity, to save Gandhi from sure death. There was before me the problem of saving for the Untouchables the political rights which the Prime Minister had given them. I responded to the call of humanity and saved the life of Mr Gandhi by agreeing to alter the Communal Award in a manner satisfactory to Mr Gandhi" Gandhi wanted only 5 years to decide whether to extend or not to extend the period of reserved seats! Could un-touchability or social slavery of untouchables be eradicated in five years? Now after 75 years the reservation needs still to be continued. But Gandhi threatened  "Five years or my life!"   Are these the words of a Mahatma? a friend of  the Dalits? Ref. DHANANJAY  KEER,  AMBEDKAR    LIFE AND MISSION ps 204- 216. DR BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR WRITINGS AND SPEECHES    Vol  9.What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables.  ps 311-317, 88. Vol  5. 'GANDHI AND HIS FAST' p 341 MS GORE ' THE Social Contextb of an Ideology'  AMBEDKAR'S POLITICAL    AND SOCIAL THOUGHT, p 136 W.N. KUBER.  'BUILDERS OF MODERN INDIA'   B.R. AMBEDKAR  ps 41-42 Dr MURUGU DORAI, "Ambethkar Kaappiyam", Epic (Tamil) of  Dr  Babasaheb  Ambedkar's Biography, Part 2,  ps  292-335. COULD ANY  DALIT EVER  REGARD GANDHI AS A FRIEND OF THE DALITS? To Be Continued......

http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Gandhi_And_Dalits.htm

(2) The seeds of swaraj are to be found in the caste system. Different castes are like different sections of

military division. Each division is working for the good of the whole….

(3) A community which can create the caste system must be said to possess unique power of organization.

(4) Caste has a ready made means for spreading primary education. Each caste can take the responsibility for

the education of the children of the caste. Caste has a political basis. It can work as an electorate for a

representative body. Caste can perform judicial functions by electing persons to act as judges to decide

disputes among members of the same caste. With castes it is easy to raise a defense force by requiring each

caste to raise a brigade.

(5) I believe that interdining or intermarriage are not necessary for promoting national unity. That dining

together creates friendship is contrary to experience. If this was true there would have been no war in

Europe…. Taking food is as dirty an act as answering the call of nature. The only difference is that after

answering call of nature we get peace while after eating food we get discomfort. Just as we perform the act of

answering the call of nature in seclusion so also the act of taking food must also be done in seclusion.

(6) In India children of brothers do not intermarry. Do they cease to love because they do not intermarry?

Among the Vaishnavas many women are so orthodox that they will not eat with members of the family nor

will they drink water from a common water pot. Have they no love? The caste system cannot be said to be bad

because it does not allow interdining or intermarriage between different castes.

(7) Caste is another name for control. Caste puts a limit on enjoyment. Caste does not allow a person to

transgress caste limits in pursuit of his enjoyment. That is the meaning of such caste restrictions as interdining

and intermarriage.

(8) To destroy caste system and adopt Western European social system means that Hindus must give up the

principle of hereditary occupation which is the soul of the caste system. Hereditary principle is an eternal

principle. To change it is to create disorder. I have no use for a Brahmin if I cannot call him a Brahmin for my

life. It will be a chaos if every day a Brahmin is to be changed into a Shudra and a Shudra is to be changed

into a Brahmin.

(9) The caste system is a natural order of society. In India it has been given a religious coating. Other

countries not having understood the utility of the caste system, it existed only in a loose condition and

consequently those countries have not derived from caste system the same degree of advantage which India

has derived. These being my views I am opposed to all those who are out to destroy the caste system.

In 1922, Mr. Gandhi was a defender of the caste system. Pursuing the inquiry, one comes across a somewhat

critical view of the caste system by Mr. Gandhi in the year 1925. This is what Mr. Gandhi said on 3rd

February 1925:

I gave support to caste because it stands for restraint. But at present caste does not mean restraint, it means

limitations. Restraint is glorious and helps to achieve freedom. But limitation is like chain. It binds. There is

nothing commendable in castes as they exist to-day. They are contrary to the tenets of the Shastras. The

number of castes is infinite and there is a bar against intermarriage. This is not a condition of elevation. It is a

state of fall.

In reply to the question: What is the way out? Mr. Gandhi said:

The best remedy is that small castes should fuse themselves into one big caste. There should be four big castes

so that we may reproduce the old system of four Varnas.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35853949/Dr-B-R-Ambedkar-on-Gandhi-and-Gandhism

With all due respect to hindu folks here.

"Wise" Gandhi jee on caste system:

M.K Gandhi is widely portrayed in and outside India as the main champion of the cause of the Untouchables (Dalits). It is, however, far from the truth. There is no doubt that he wanted the untouchability to be abolished but he, at the same time, was a strong supporter of the caste system. Supporting the caste system he said: "I believe that caste has saved Hinduism from disintegration." He also said, "To destroy the caste system and adopt the Western European social system means that Hindus must give up the principle of hereditary occupation, which is the soul of the caste system. The hereditary principle is an eternal principle. To change it is to create disorder." [1]

Obviously, the stance of Gandhi with respect to the caste system was contradictory. Since untouchability is a by-product of the caste system, it does not make any sense to advocate the abolition of the untouchability while trying at the same time to perpetuate the caste system. In fact, Gandhi was neither a friend of the Untouchables, nor was he sincere in advocating the abolition of untouchability. His actions clearly belied his precepts.

In 1933, he established Harijan (Dalit) Sevak Sangh for the welfare of the Untouchables (Dalits). But when there was a demand for the representation of the Untouchables on the Governing Board of the institution, he flatly refused it. He disapproved appointment of Mr. Agnibhaj, a distinguished personality, as a minister in the Congress cabinet in the Madhya Pradesh because he was from the Scheduled Caste.

In the Round Table Conference held in 1932, the then British Government accepted the demand of the Dalits for separate electorate. The basis of that demand was the fact that the Dalit are not Hindu but a separate nation. Gandhi started his 'fast unto death' against that plan and sabotaged it. It was a thunderous blow to the cause of the emancipation of the Dalit. Gandhi, however, showed great respect to the Dalits when he made them comparable to the cows who have divine position in Hinduism. He said: "Majority of Harijans (Dalits) can no more understand the presentation of Christianity than my cows." [2]

An examination of the role played by Gandhi apparently to serve the cause of the Dalits will clearly indicate that he was not sincere at all in showing sympathy towards them. The attitude which he really had towards the Dalits has superbly been portrayed by Dr. Ambedkar in the following words: "Hinduism is a veritable chamber of horrors. The sanctity and infallibility of the Vedas, Smritis and Shastras, the iron law of caste, the heartless law of karma and the senseless law of status by birth are to the Untouchables veritable instruments of torture which Hinduism has forged against untouchables. These very instruments which have mutilated; blasted and blighted the lives of the Untouchables are to be found intact and untarnished in the bosom of Gandhism." [3]


--------

References
[1] Fazlul Huq, Gandhi: Saint or Sinner (Bangalore; 1992), p. 68.
[2] M.K. Gandhi, Christian Missions: Their Place in India, (Ahmedabad: n.d.), p. 58.
[3] Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, What Congress and Gandhi have done to Untouchables?

Mamata leads procession with bodies of Lalgarh victims
Indo-Asian News Service
Lalgarh, January 08, 2011
First Published: 20:54 IST(8/1/2011)
Last Updated: 21:01 IST(8/1/2011)

Black flags hung from trees, walls and lamp posts, people covered their faces with black cloth, and the air was heavy with the wailing of relatives of victims of Friday's Lalgarh firing as railway minister Mamataa Banerjee marched in Midnapore town with the bodies of those killed. Thousands

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• Firing in Lalgarh shouldn't have happened: Buddha

of people wearing black badges, thronged the college ground in the town to pay their last respects to the villagers who died in a clash triggered by assailants allegedly backed by West Bengal's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and locals in Netai village, about three km from this Maoist hub of West Midnapore district.
At least seven people were shot dead and 17 wounded in the clashes amid allegations that the assailants were sheltered in armed camps set up by the CPI-M.
Early Saturday, Banerjee visited Netai and spoke to the relatives of the dead and wounded, who narrated harrowing tales of Friday's gruesome incident that has sent shockwaves throughout the state.
With fear stalking Netai, Banerjee called up state Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh and requested him to beef up security to instil confidence in the minds of the villagers and ensure their safety in case of any further attacks.
Banerjee had Friday said she would address people at the Ramakrishna Vidyalaya ground in Lalgarh, but cancelled the programme. Trinamool sources claimed the decision was taken for security reasons.
Later, Banerjee went to the district headquarters, Midnapore town to pay her respects to the dead and head the rally that started from Midnapore College ground and passed through several thoroughfares of the town to terminate at Battala Chawk. Banerjee, however, was present at the rally for a short while and left for Howrah to address a meeting.
She was earlier slated to address a meeting at Midnapore college ground, but Trinamool Youth Congress chief Subhendu Adhikari said that had to be cancelled due to time constraints. "It took time to bring the bodies to Midnapore. And our leader was getting late for her scheduled rally in the evening in neighbouring Howrah district," he said.
A large posse of policemen, most of them wearing helmets and riot gear, arrived at the meeting spot Saturday morning to ensure fool-proof security.
However, the state's ruling Marxists took a dig at Banerjee saying she could not arrange enough people to hold the meeting at Midnapore town.
"Trinamool Congress couldn't arrange enough people to conduct a rally. That's why they have cancelled the program," said Shyamal Chakroborty, CPI-M central committee member.
The CPI-M also brought out two processions - one at Lalgarh and the other at Midnapore town.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Mamata-leads-procession-with-bodies-of-Lalgarh-victims/Article1-647958.aspx
Firing in Lalgarh shouldn't have happened, says Buddhadeb
Press Trust Of India
Canning, January 08, 2011
First Published: 19:53 IST(8/1/2011)
Last Updated: 19:55 IST(8/1/2011)

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday strongly disapproved of the firing in Lalgarh, allegedly by CPI(M) cadres, saying it should not have happened and asked all political parties to exercise restraint. "What happened in West Midnapore yesterday (Friday) was not good. It

should not have happened. Killings and bloodshed must stop otherwise all development work will come to a halt. All political parties should observe restraint," the chief minister said while inaugurating a bridge over a river.
"We don't want violence. We don't want people to be killed. We will not allow killings. Killings must stop," he said.
Bhattacharjee said the state government wanted jobs for the poor and peace. "We want to development work for those still living in darkness and in tears. Violence will destroy everything."
The Chief Minister's remarks came a day after West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan denounced the Lalgarh incident saying it was a "day of shame and sorrow" for the state and asked the state government to act before it reaches the "point of no return".

Break Trinamool Congress-Maoist tie-up, CPI(M) tells Chidambaram

Published: Saturday, Jan 8, 2011, 22:38 IST
Place: New Delhi | Agency: PTI
The CPI(M) today said the "link" between Trinamool Congress and the Maoists was the "single biggest factor" responsible for the volatile situation in West Bengal and asked home minister P Chidambaram to ensure that this tie-up is broken.
"It is essential for home minister Chidambaram, instead of issuing partisan statements, to ensure that his cabinet colleague Mamata Banerjee breaks her party's links with the Maoists which is the single biggest factor responsible for the present situation", the party politburo said in a statement here.
It said the "tragic loss of lives and injuries to several" in the West Midnapur district yesterday was "a result of the violent politics indulged in by the Maoist-Trinamool combine."
The party said quoting reports that in a "pre-planned move (yesterday), efforts were made to violently attack those families of CPI(M) who had returned to the village and those waiting in the displaced peoples camp to return" which led to the violence in which precious lives were lost.
"It should be recalled that earlier on December 16, when seven workers including a woman gram pradhan of Forward Bloc were brutally murdered in Jhalda in the Purulia district by Maoists, the TMC did not even issue a statement to condemn the killings, showing their complicity in the crime", the CPI(M) said.
It said the Maoist-Trinamool combine had driven out Left cadre from the Jangalmahal area using brutal methods in which over 122 tribal activists of the CPI(M) were killed, hundreds of homes burnt and thousands driven out of the area.
"Peoples' resistance in many areas has led to improvement in the situation which is not to the liking of this combine", the CPI(M) added.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has no immediate plan to visit Delhi

Published: Saturday, Jan 8, 2011, 15:02 IST
Place: Kolkata | Agency: PTI
West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has no immediate plan to visit Delhi following Union home minister P Chidambaram's letter to him after the violence in Lalgarh.
Confirming receipt of Chidambaram's letter which urged Bhattacharjee to visit Delhi immediately rescheduling all programmes, the chief minister's office said "he has no immediate plan to go to Delhi at least in a day or two."
It said the chief minister had gone to Canning in South 24 Parganas district today to inaugurate a bridge over the Matla river.
"We have no idea if the chief minister has replied to Chidambaram's letter," CPI(M) sources said.

Firing at Lalgarh proves existence of 'harmad' camp: Trinamool Congress

Published: Friday, Jan 7, 2011, 23:20 IST
Place: Kolkata | Agency: PTI
Trinamool Congress parliamentary party chief whip Sudip Bandyopadhyay tonight said he had apprised Union home minister P Chidambaram about the firing in Lalgarh, which proved the existence of the camps of "armed CPI(M) cadres".
"The firing with sophisticated weapons at Lalgarh was planned and has proved that camps of harmads of CPI(M) exist in jungle mahal, which we have been stating for long," Bandyopadhyay said.
Bandhyopadhyay said that Chidambaram informed him that he had written another letter to the West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee asking him to "reschedule all appointments and visit Delhi immediately."
The letter sent by him had also been acknowledged by the chief minister's office, Chidambaram had informed him he said.
The state secretariat, however, did not confirm receipt of the letter.
Describing the killing as 'genocide', he said that his party had for long been stating that the central forces for anti-Maoist operations were being misused.
"This has again proved that the central forces are being used to shieldharmad camps than to fight Maoists," he alleged.
"The time is ripe now for the Centre to act," he said.

reak Trinamool Congress-Maoist tie-up, CPI(M) tells Chidambaram Daily News & Analysis - ‎56 minutes ago‎ Place: New Delhi | Agency: PTI The CPI(M) today said the "link" between Trinamool Congress and the Maoists was the "single biggest factor" responsible for the volatile situation in West Bengal and asked home minister P Chidambaram to ensure that this ... Mamata leads procession with bodies of Lalgarh victims Hindustan Times - ‎2 hours ago‎ Black flags hung from trees, walls and lamp posts, people covered their faces with black cloth, and the air was heavy with the wailing of relatives of victims of Friday's Lalgarh firing as railway minister Mamataa Banerjee marched in Midnapore town ... What happened at Lalgarh is not good: Buddhadeb Times of India - ‎3 hours ago‎ KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Saturday condemned the killing of seven villagers in Lalgarh area and said that all political parties should restrain themselves from violence. "We want peace in the state. ... Lalgarh Incident Shouldn't Have Happened: Buddhadeb Outlook - ‎21 minutes ago‎ A day after firing in Lalgarh by suspected CPI(M) cadres left eight dead and over a dozen injured, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today took strong exception to it saying it should "not have have happened", while asking all ... Kolkata intellectuals protest against Lalgarh killings Sify - ‎58 minutes ago‎ Kolkata, Jan 8 (IANS) A section of intellectuals Saturday took out a procession and blocked a main busy road in the city in protest against the killing of seven villagers near Lalgarh in West Bengal's West Midnapore district a day earlier.... CPI-M wanted a Nandigram in Lalgarh: Mamata indiablooms - ‎34 minutes ago‎ Lalgarh, Jan 8 (IBNS): Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said the ruling communists had tried to create another Nandigram in West Bengal's Lalgarh on Friday where eight died in a firing blamed on the ruling party cadres. ... CPI-M government a bandit government: Mamata Sify - ‎58 minutes ago‎ Dhulagarh (West Bengal), Jan 8 (IANS) Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Saturday launched a scathing attack on Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front government and termed it as a government of 'harmads' ... Seven people die in firing in Lalgarh, CPM blamed Times of India - ‎Jan 7, 2011‎ LAGARH: Seven people were shot dead and 12 wounded near this Maoist hub in West Bengal Friday, sparking allegations that the killers were sheltered in a camp set up by the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM). The Marxists denied involvement. ... Why cops stay quiet on CPM goons Times of India - Caesar Mandal - ‎17 hours ago‎ MIDNAPORE: Security forces in Lalgarh cut a sorry figure after Friday's bloodbath in Lalgarh's Netai village. While senior officers groped for answers to why no steps were taken to disarm CPM cadres in Lalgarh, insiders revealed that it was a ... Now, body politics reaches Lalgarh Times of India - ‎17 hours ago‎ KOLKATA/MIDNAPORE: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who rushed to Midnapore after hearing of the incident at Netai, will hold a public meeting at the College Ground there on Saturday afternoon with the bodies of those killed by CPM gunmen on ... All 73 related articles »

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Lalgarh

* The Hindu CPI-M wanted a Nandigram inLalgarh: Mamata indiablooms - ‎35 minutes ago‎ Lalgarh, Jan 8 (IBNS): Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said the ruling communists had tried to create another Nandigram in West ... Video: Political violence in West Bengal NewsX Mamata leads procession with bodies ofLalgarh victims Hindustan Times Sify - Outlook - Indian Express - Express Buzz all 223 news articles » हिंदी मेंEmail this story Pro-Maoist group calls shutdown to protestLalgarh killings Sify - ‎4 hours ago‎ ... shutdown starting Monday in the three Maoist-affected western districts of West Bengal to protest against the killing of seven villagers near Lalgarh. Kolkata: Cong blocks road, rail traffic; TC holds condemnation day Indian Express - ‎6 hours ago‎ Condemning the firing in Lalgarh, Congress protestors today burnt effigies of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee demanding his resignation, ... Indian Express Tide turns in Lalgarh, CPM men shoot 7 villagers Indian Express - ‎16 hours ago‎ Seven villagers were gunned down allegedly by armed CPM cadres (Harmad) at Netai village in West Midnapore today afternoon. More than 15 people received ... Calcutta Telegraph City spared the rally worst Calcutta Telegraph - ‎20 hours ago‎ Traffic did take a hit on Friday afternoon because of two rallies but early morning violence in Lalgarh that forced several Trinamul leaders to leave for ... Deaths deflect Maoist nexus focus Calcutta Telegraph all 5 news articles » हिंदी मेंEmail this story Calcutta Telegraph Rebel camp-capture bid with locals as foils Calcutta Telegraph - Pronab Mandal -‎21 hours ago‎ 7: Maoists wanted to overrun the CPM'sLalgarh camp where today's firing occurred and had been mobilising villagers to make the invasion look like an ... Blood on CPM camp Calcutta Telegraph 'Cautious' tone in recapture drive Calcutta Telegraph all 3 news articles » हिंदी मेंEmail this story LF chief whip admits CPI(M) men had arms MSN India - ‎5 hours ago‎ ... had been living in the house, from where firing left seven persons dead at Netai village in Lalgarh, but said the the arms were meant for self-defence. Victims trickle into hospital Calcutta Telegraph - ‎21 hours ago‎ The middle-aged housewife was the first of the many victims of the Lalgarh firing today to be brought to the hospital. Phulkumari had a bullet injury in her ... SamayLive Twin rallies choke arterial roads of city Times of India - ‎16 hours ago‎ Enough political heat was generated on Friday after news of the killing of sevenLalgarh residents - reportedly Trinamool supporters - reached College ... Mamata to lead TMC body parade Times of India Trinamool, SFI rallies choke Kolkata streetsTimes of India Times of India all 16 news articles » हिंदी मेंEmail this story In crowd, 'outsiders' in mufflers & shawls Calcutta Telegraph - Naresh Jana - ‎21 hours ago‎ Lalgarh, Jan. 7: Nitai resident Ratan Adak (name changed) was returning home from the river bank this morning when he heard "loud voices". No clue what happened there, says Biman Bose Indian Express - ‎19 hours ago‎ Left Front chairman Biman Bose said he has no idea about the Lalgarh violence on Friday. He further said said the district secretary of CPM committee, ... 6 villagers killed, about 20 injured Hindustan Times - ‎Jan 7, 2011‎ Six villagers were killed and about 20 injured when bullets were showered on villagers in Netai village who had encircled an armed CPI(M) camp near Lalgarh, ... Teen Maoist shot dead Times of India - ‎Jan 4, 2011‎ LALGARH (West Midnapore): Joint forces killed a suspected Maoist in Kankaradara village in Lalgarh in the wee hours of Tuesday and arrested five others. Security forces gun down a Maoist in West Midnapore encounter Sify all 3 news articles »Email this story Calcutta Telegraph CPM show of strength in Lalgarh Times of India - ‎Dec 31, 2010‎ LALGARH: Slogans written on mud walls with red ink Comrade Dipak Sarkarer samabeshe dale dale jog din could be seen all through the 11-kilometre stretch ... CPM forms village protection groups to fight Maoists Economic Times Trinamool, CPM plan mega rallies inLalgarh Times of India Calcutta Telegraph - Calcutta Telegraph all 12 news articles »Email this story Cop boost plea in rebel belt Calcutta Telegraph - ‎Jan 6, 2011‎ "Lalgarh, Jhargram, Belpahari, Goaltore, Salboni, Nayagram and Sankrail have only one police station each. The police stations were set up around 60 years ... Maoist killed in Bengal gunfight Sify - ‎Jan 4, 2011‎ Acting on intelligence inputs that a group of armed rebels had taken shelter at Baxibandh forest near Lalgarh, security personnel conducted a raid early ... The Hindu Maoists claim they were with Trinamool in WB mass movements Indian Express - ‎Jan 4, 2011‎ "We have worked in alliance with the Trinamool Congress to mobilise the masses in Singur, Nandigram and Lalgarh to corner the CPI(M) and even fought ... We support Mamata, she should quit cabinet: Maoists Sify Agnivesh warns of violent polls Times of India The Hindu - Hindustan Times -Calcutta Telegraph all 43 news articles »Email this story Calcutta Telegraph Hand in hand, behind letters Calcutta Telegraph - Pronab Mondal -‎Jan 1, 2011‎ Lalgarh, Jan. 1: Out of range of the fusillade of letters flying between Calcutta and Delhi, P. Chidambaram's security forces and the CPM's "harmad vahini" ... 3 Maoist squad members held Times of India - ‎Jan 2, 2011‎ MIDNAPORE: The joint forces on Sunday arrested three Maoist squad members, including its leader, Mangal Mahato, during an early morning raid in Lalgarh's ... NDTV.com Trinamool worker hacked and shot dead in Lalgarh Indian Express - ‎Dec 19, 2010‎ A Trinamool Congress worker was on hacked and shot dead by unknown persons atLalgarh in West Midnapore district. The police said 35-year-old Sanatan ... Video: Trinamool-CPM 'funeral' politics in West Bengal NDTV.com Trinamool man hacked and shot in LalgarhTimes of India Mumbai Mirror - Times Now.tv - Outlook all 36 news articles »Email this story

Featured video Political violence in West Bengal NewsX all 223 news articles » Images Calcutta Telegr... Calcutta Telegr... Calcutta Telegr... Calcutta Telegr... NDTV.com The Hindu Indian Express SamayLive Calcutta Telegr... All related images »

Mamata Banerjee

* The Hindu CPI-M government a bandit government: Mamata Sify - ‎59 minutes ago‎ Dhulagarh (West Bengal), Jan 8 (IANS) Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Saturday launched a scathing attack on Communist Party ... Video: Political violence in West Bengal NewsX Mamata leads procession with bodies of Lalgarh victims Hindustan Times India Today - Times of India - Times Now.tv -Daily News & Analysis all 223 news articles » हिंदी मेंEmail this story Trinamool cooperated with Maoists in Nandigram: Party MP Sify - ‎7 hours ago‎ In his just released book 'Nishaner Naam Tapasi Malik' (Tapasi Malik - An Emblem), Suman writes that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and other ... Trinamool mulling disciplinary action against Suman Indian Express Insider says Maoists helped Mamata stir Nandigram potIndia Today Business Standard - Times of India all 12 news articles » हिंदी मेंEmail this story Calcutta Telegraph Maoist-spotting Hindustan Times - Manas Chakravarty -‎1 hour ago‎ First the CPI(M) said Mamata Banerjee was hobnobbing with the Maoists. Then Mamatasaid there were no Maoists in West Bengal. Blood on CPM camp Calcutta Telegraph all 3 news articles » हिंदी मेंEmail this story Calcutta Telegraph Deaths deflect Maoist nexus focus Calcutta Telegraph - ‎21 hours ago‎ 7: Ten deaths in three days - three in Burdwan in the past two days and seven in West Midnapore today - has given Mamata Banerjee the chance to deflect ... City spared the rally worst Calcutta Telegraph Mamata accuses CPI(M) of killing her workers Hindustan Times Calcutta Telegraph all 5 news articles » हिंदी मेंEmail this story SamayLive Mamata to lead TMC body parade Times of India - ‎Jan 6, 2011‎ KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chairpersonMamata Banerjee will lead a rally in Kolkata on Friday with the bodies of three Trinamool workers killed since ... Trinamool gets ready to rally with bodies again Indian Express Trinamool Congress Politicking Over Deaths: CPI(M) Outlook Sify all 16 news articles » हिंदी मेंEmail this story Calcutta Telegraph Delhi Cong to talk seats with Didi Calcutta Telegraph - Barun Ghosh -‎Jan 6, 2011‎ 6: The central Congress leadership has decided to take over the responsibility of striking the alliance with Mamata Banerjeefor the Assembly polls this ... Railway gangmen, families can avail free AC travel Times of India Makeover in the making: Didi is now 'Mamataa' Hindustan Times Press Information Bureau (press release) -The Hindu all 15 news articles »Email this story The Hindu Mamata Banerjee meets Manmohan Singh over rail budget Daily News & Analysis - ‎Jan 4, 2011‎ Place: New Delhi | Agency: PTI Railway minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and is understood to have discussed issues ... Maoists announce terms "to maintain alliance" with Mamata The Hindu Seat sharing in Bengal: Mamata meets PM, Pranab Hindustan Times Sify - Times of India - Indian Express -Calcutta Telegraph all 43 news articles »Email this story Mamata flight makes emergency landing Indian Express - ‎Jan 5, 2011‎ NEW DELHI: With Railway Minister and Trinamool chiefMamata Banerjee and party MP Mukul Roy on board, a Kolkata-bound Air India flight -- AI-680 -- had to ... Plane carrying Mamata makes emergency landing The Hindu Didi scare Calcutta Telegraph all 6 news articles »Email this story Mamata's air-conditioned gift for Grade-D employees of railways Khabrein - Soroor Ahmed - ‎7 hours ago‎ But now the railway minister Mamata Banerjee has announced a New Year's Gift to the lowest grade employees of the Indian Railways. Mumbai's suburban railway to be an autonomous body? Daily News & Analysis - ‎Jan 6, 2011‎ Last week, many officials were taken by surprise after railway minister Mamata Banerjee made Kolkatta Metro into a separate body, making it the 17th railway ... Calcutta Telegraph Suman music for CPM ears Calcutta Telegraph - ‎Jan 5, 2011‎ 5: Kabir Suman has let down his "great friend"Mamata Banerjee but not the CPM. The singer-turned-politician's book, Nishaner Naam Tapasi Malik, ... PC signals May elections Calcutta Telegraph Parent indulges state CPM Calcutta Telegraph all 5 news articles »Email this story Kolkata: Cong blocks road, rail traffic; TC holds condemnation day Indian Express - ‎6 hours ago‎ Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee led a procession in Midnapore town to observe 'Condemnation Day' in protest against the Lalgarh killings. The Hindu Mamata Banerjee accuses Buddhadeb of being Maoist Economic Times - ‎Dec 29, 2010‎ ... Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee's letter to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram ,Mamata Banerjee said, "the Chief Minister himself is a Maoist leader. Video: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is a Maoist leader: Mamata Asian News International (ANI) Buddhadeb reply a show of arrogance:Mamata The Hindu Sify - Calcutta Telegraph - India Today -Indian Express all 43 news articles »Email this story The Hindu Banerjee condoles death of noted signer Suchitra Mitra Sify - ‎Jan 3, 2011‎ Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjeehas expressed her deep and heartfelt condolences at the sad demise of noted signer Suchitra Mitra, who passed away in ... Voice of an era is no more Calcutta Telegraph President condoles Suchitra Mitra''s deathMSN India NetIndian - indiablooms - Kolkata Newsline all 86 news articles »Email this story My film has no connection with TMC: Bidyut Times of India - Zinia Sen - ‎Jan 5, 2011‎ So what if the shooting of Bidyut Sarkar's political film onMamata Banerjee got delayed by a month, the director is still eyeing a pre-election release. The Hindu Left meets PC over TMC Maoist link' Times of India - ‎Jan 6, 2011‎ ... support and joint resistance along withMamata Banerjee and her party", Kabir Suman's book, Nishaner Naam Tapasi Malik', mentions that the Red rebels ... Video: Maoists have links with Trinamool Congress: Yechury Asian News International (ANI) CPI-M submits memo on Maoist-TMC nexusindiablooms India Today - Outlook all 39 news articles »Email this story The Hindu Mamata Banerjee talks of resignation, then backtracks Hindustan Times - ‎Dec 22, 2010‎ Railway minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asserted that she will "resign from any post" if she failed to prove that the Communist Party of India-Marxist ... 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West Bengal

Almost half of polling stations in Bengalsensitive Sify - ‎17 minutes ago‎ Kolkata, Jan 8 (IANS) Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi Saturday expressed concern over the violence inWest Bengal and declared almost half of ... EC concerned over law and order situation in West BengalTimes of India EC concerned over West Bengal violence indiablooms all 8 news articles »Email this story The Hindu Lalgarh Incident Shouldn't Have Happened: Buddhadeb Outlook - ‎22 minutes ago‎ A day after firing in Lalgarh by suspected CPI(M) cadres left eight dead and over a dozen injured, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today ... Video: Political violence in West Bengal NewsX What happened at Lalgarh is not good: Buddhadeb Times of India All India Radio - The Hindu - Oneindia -Daily News & Analysis all 223 news articles » हिंदी मेंEmail this story Maoist-spotting Hindustan Times - Manas Chakravarty - ‎1 hour ago‎ Then Mamata said there were no Maoists in West Bengal. Now Mamata says Buddhadeb Bhattacha-rjee is a Maoist. Are they both Maoists? Orissadiary.com Cops glare on injured rebels Times of India - Sandeep Mishra -‎25 minutes ago‎ "We have informed the West Bengal police and the Jhargram SP has already dispatched a team to help us investigate further into the case," twin city police ... Orissa Police arrest two suspected Maoists from SCB Medical Orissadiary.com all 2 news articles »Email this story The Hindu Left Front alleges Trinamool-Maoist nexus in West Bengal Hindustan Times - ‎Jan 5, 2011‎ ... submitted a memorandum to home minister P Chidamabram, alleging existence of a nexus between the Maoists and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. 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One killed in explosion at railway station inWest Bengal Sify - ‎Jan 6, 2011‎ Kolkata, Jan 6 (IANS) A 70-year-old man was killed and two women were injured Thursday when a bomb, kept in a box, exploded at a railway station in West ... 20 injured in Bengal clash Sify all 10 news articles »Email this story Indian Express Bengal farmers to get 3 cottahs for every acre acquired Indian Express - ‎Jan 6, 2011‎ Farmers in West Bengal whose land will be acquired will now get three cottahs of developed land for commercial purpose for every acre of land. WB govt. allots land to 13 firms indiablooms Nirupam talks tough on land use Calcutta Telegraph all 7 news articles »Email this story Peaceful polls will be held in West Bengal: Chidambaram Times of India - ‎Jan 4, 2011‎ NEW DELHI: Amidst reports of unabated killing of political workers in West Bengal, the Centre said it was confident that peaceful elections will be held in ... 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Bengal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Bengal (disambiguation).

Bengal
Map of the Bengal region: West Bengal and Bangladesh
Largest Cities	Dhaka 23.42°N 90.22°E Kolkata[1] (Calcutta) 23.34°N 88.22°E Chittagong 22.22°N 91.48°E
Main language	Bangla (Bengali)
Area	232,752 km²
Population (2001)	245,598,679[2][3]
Density	951.3/km²[2][3]
Infant mortality rate	55.91 per 1000 live births[4][5]
Websites	bangladesh.gov.bd andwbgov.com

Bengal (Bengali: বঙ্গ Bôngo, বাংলা Bangla, বঙ্গদেশ Bôngodesh or বাংলাদেশ Bangladesh) is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent,South Asia. Today it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh (previously East Bengal / East Pakistan) and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous kingdoms of Bengal (during local monarchical regimes and British rule) are now part of the neighboring Indian states ofBihar, Assam and Orissa. The majority of Bengal is inhabited by Bengali people (বাঙালিBangali) who speak the Bengali language (বাংলা Bangla).

The region of Bengal is one of the most densely populated regions on earth, with a population density exceeding 900/km². Most of the Bengal region lies in the low-lyingGanges–Brahmaputra River Delta or Ganges Delta, the world's largest delta. In the southern part of the delta lies the Sundarbans—the world's largest mangrove forest and home of the Bengal tiger. Though the population of the region is mostly rural and agrarian, two megacities, Kolkata (previously Calcutta) and Dhaka (previously Dacca), are located in Bengal. The Bengal region is renowned for its rich literary and cultural heritage as well as its immense contribution to the socio-cultural uplift of Indian society in the form of the Bengal Renaissance, and revolutionary activities during the Indian independence movement.

Contents  [hide] 1 Etymology and ethnology 2 Major cities 3 History 4 Geography 5 Demographics 6 Economy 6.1 West Bengal 6.2 Bangladesh 7 Culture 8 Intra-Bengal relations today 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 External links

Etymology and ethnology

Main article: Bengali people

The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang that settled in the area around the year 1000 BC.^[6]

Other accounts speculate that the name is derived from Vanga(বঙ্গ bôngo), which came from the Austric word "Bonga" meaning the Sun-god. The word Vanga and other words speculated to refer to Bengal (such as Anga) can be found in ancient Indian texts including the Vedas,Jaina texts, the Mahabharata and Puranas. The earliest reference to "Vangala" (বঙ্গাল bôngal) has been traced in the Nesari plates (805 AD) ofRashtrakuta Govinda III which speak of Dharmapala as the king of Vangala.^[7]

Some accounts claim that the word may derive from bhang, a preparation of cannabis which is used in some religious ceremonies in Bengal.^[8][9] Dravidians migrated to Bengal from the south, while Tibeto-Burman peoples migrated from the Himalayas,^[10] followed by theIndo-Aryans from north-western India. The modern Bengali people are a blend of these people. Smaller numbers of Pathans, Persians, Arabsand Turks also migrated to the region in the late Middle Ages while spreading Islam.

Major cities

The following are the largest cities in Bengal (in terms of population):

1. Dhaka
2. Kolkata
3. Chittagong
4. Howrah
5. Khulna
6. Rajshahi
7. Siliguri
8. Durgapur
9. Asansol
10. Sylhet
11. Barisal
12. Chandannagar

History

Main article: History of Bengal

Mahasthangarh is the oldest archaeological site in Bangladesh. It dates back to 700 BCE and was the ancient capital of the Pundra Kingdom.

Pala Empire under Dharmapala.

Somapura Mahavihara in Paharpur, Bangladesh is the greatest BuddhistVihara in the Indian Subcontinent built byDharmapala of Bengal.

Pala Empire under Devapala.

Robert Clive, of British East India Company, after winning the
Battle of Plassey in 1757.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy is regarded as the "Father of theBengal Renaissance".

Subhash Chandra Bose is one of the most prominent leaders and freedom fighters from Bengal in the Indian independence movement against the British Raj.

Remnants of Copper Age settlements in the Bengal region date back 4,300 years,.^[11][12] After the arrival of Indo-Aryans, the kingdoms of Anga, Vanga and Magadha were formed by the 10th century BC, located in the Bihar and Bengal regions. Magadha was one of the four main kingdoms of India at the time of Buddha and consisted of several Janapadas.^[10] One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BC, located in an area in Bengal.^[13] From the 3rd to the 6th centuries CE, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire.

The first recorded independent king of Bengal was Shashanka, reigning around early 7th century.^[14] After a period of anarchy, the native Buddhist-Hindu Pala Empire ruled the region for four hundred years, and expanded across much of the Indian subcontinent into Afghanistan during the reigns of Dharmapalaand Devapala. The Pala dynasty was followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Saiva Sena dynasty. Islam was introduced to Bengal by Arab Muslim traders. A large number of people became Muslims in the twelfth century through Sufimissionaries. Subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region.^[15] Bakhtiar Khilji, a Turkicgeneral of the Slave dynasty of Delhi Sultanate, defeatedLakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties ofsultans and feudal lords under the Delhi Sultanate for the next few hundred years. In the sixteenth century, Mughal general Islam Khan conquered Bengal. Susequently, Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri and Hindu king Hemu had ruled for shorter periods. However, administration by governors appointed by the court of the Mughal Empire gave way to semi-independence of the area under the Nawabs of Murshidabad, who nominally respected the sovereignty of the Mughals in Delhi. The most notable among them is Murshid Quli Khan, who was succeeded byAlivardi Khan.

Portuguese traders arrived late in the fifteenth century, once Vasco da Gama reached India by sea in 1498. European influence grew until theBritish East India Company gained taxation rights in Bengal subah, or province, following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, when Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab, was defeated by the British.^[16] TheBengal Presidency was established by 1766, eventually including all British territories north of the Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh), from the mouths of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra to the Himalayasand the Punjab. The Bengal famine of 1770 claimed millions of lives.^[17]Calcutta was named the capital of British India in 1772. The Bengal Renaissance and Brahmo Samaj socio-cultural reform movements had great impact on the cultural and economic life of Bengal. The failedIndian rebellion of 1857 started near Calcutta and resulted in transfer of authority to the British Crown, administered by theViceroy of India.^[18] Between 1905 and 1911, an abortive attemptwas made to divide the province of Bengal into two zones.^[19]

Bengal has played a major role in the Indian independence movement, in which revolutionary groups were dominant. Armed attempts to overthrow the British Raj reached a climax whenSubhash Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army against the British. Bengal was also central in the rising political awareness of the Muslim population—the Muslim League was established in Dhaka in 1906. In spite of a last ditch effort to form a United Bengal,^[20] when India gained independence in 1947, Bengal was partitioned along religious lines.^[21] The western part went to India (and was named West Bengal) while the eastern part joined Pakistan as a province calledEast Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan, giving rise to Bangladesh in 1971). The circumstances of partition was bloody, with widespread religious riots in Bengal.^[21][22]

The post-partition political history of East and West Bengal diverged for the most part. Starting from the Bengali Language Movement of 1952.^[23] political dissent against West Pakistanidomination grew steadily. Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, emerged as the political voice of the Bengali-speaking population of East Pakistan by 1960s.^[24] In 1971, the crisis deepened when Rahman was arrested and a sustained military assault was launched on East Pakistan.^[25] Most of the Awami League leaders fled and set up a government-in-exile in West Bengal. The guerrilla Mukti Bahini and Bengali regulars eventually received support from the Indian Armed Forces in December 1971, resulting in a decisive victory over Pakistan on 16 December in the Bangladesh Liberation War or Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.^[26] The post independence history of Bangladesh was strife with conflict, with a long history of political assassinations and coups before parliamentary democracy was established in 1991. Since then, the political environment has been relatively stable.

West Bengal, the western part of Bengal, became a state in India. In the 1960s and 1970s, severe power shortages, strikes and a violentMarxist-Naxalite movement damaged much of the state's infrastructure, leading to a period of economic stagnation. The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 resulted in the influx of millions of refugees to West Bengal, causing significant strains on its infrastructure.^[27] West Bengal politics underwent a major change when the Left Front won the 1977 assembly election, defeating the incumbent Indian National Congress. The Left Front, led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) has governed for the last three decades.^[28] The state's economic recovery gathered momentum after economic reforms in India were introduced in the mid-1990s by the central government, aided by election of a new reformist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in 2000.

Geography

See also: Geography of West Bengal and Geography of Bangladesh

The Royal Bengal Tiger

Most of the Bengal region is in the low-lying Ganges–Brahmaputra River Delta or Ganges Delta. The Ganges Delta arises from the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghnarivers and their respective tributaries. The total area of Bengal is 232752  km²—West Bengal is 88,752 km² and Bangladesh 144,000 km².

Most parts of Bangladesh are within 10 meters (33 ft) above the sea level, and it is believed that about 10% of the land would be flooded if the sea level were to rise by 1 metre (3 ft).^[29] Because of this low elevation, much of this region is exceptionally vulnerable to seasonal flooding due to monsoons. The highest point in Bangladesh is in Mowdok range at 1,052 metres (3,451 ft) in theChittagong Hill Tracts to the southeast of the country.^[30] A major part of the coastline comprises a marshy jungle, the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world and home to diverse flora and fauna, including the Royal Bengal Tiger. In 1997, this region was declared endangered.^[31]

West Bengal is on the eastern bottleneck of India, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south. The state has a total area of 88,752 km² (34,267 sq mi).^[32] TheDarjeeling Himalayan hill region in the northern extreme of the state belongs to the easternHimalaya. This region contains Sandakfu (3,636 m (11,929 ft))—the highest peak of the state.^[33]The narrow Terai region separates this region from the plains, which in turn transitions into theGanges delta towards the south. The Rarh region intervenes between the Ganges delta in the east and the western plateau and high lands. A small coastal region is on the extreme south, while theSundarbans mangrove forests form a remarkable geographical landmark at the Ganges delta. At least nine districts in West Bengal and 42 districts in Bangladesh have arsenic levels in groundwater above the World Health Organization maximum permissible limit of 50 µg/L.^[34]

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of Bangladesh and Demographics of West Bengal

Shaheed Minar, or the Martyr's monument, in Dhaka, commemorates the struggle for the Bengali language.

Baitul Mukarram in Dhaka is theNational Mosque of Bangladesh.

Dakshineswar Kali Temple in Kolkata,West Bengal.

About 250 million people live in Bengal, around 68% of them in Bangladesh and the remainder in West Bengal.^[2][35] The population density in the area is more than 900/km²; making it among the most densely populated areas in the world.^[2][3]

Bengali is the main language spoken in Bengal. English is often used for official work. There are small minorities who speak Hindi, Urdu, Chakma. There are several tribal languages including Santhali. Nepali is spoken primarily by the Gorkhas of Darjeeling district of West Bengal.

66% of the total Bengali population is Muslim, and 33% isHindu. In Bangladesh 89.7% of the population is Muslim and 9.2% are Hindus (Bangladesh Census 2001). In West Bengal, Hindus are the majority with 72.5% of the population while Muslims comprise 25%, and other religions make up the remainder.^[36] Other religious groups include Buddhists, Christians, andAnimists. About 2% of the population is tribal.^[37]

Life expectancy is around 63 years, and are almost same for the men and women.^[38][39] In terms of literacy, West Bengal leads with 69.22% literacy rate,^[2] in Bangladesh the rate is approximately 41%.^[40] The level of poverty is high, the proportion of people living below the poverty line is more than 30%.^[37][41]

About 20,000 people live on chars. Chars are temporary islands formed by the deposition of sediments eroded off the banks of the Ganges in West Bengal which often disappear in the monsoon season. They are made of very fertile soil. The inhabitants of chars are not recognised by the Government of West Bengal on the grounds that it is not known whether they are Bengalis or Bangladeshi refugees. Consequently, no identification documents are issued to char-dwellers who cannot benefit from health care, barely survive due to very poor sanitation and are prevented from emigrating to the mainland to find jobs when they have turned 14. On a particular char it was reported that 13% of women died at childbirth.^[42]

Economy

Worker in a paddy, a common scene all over Bengal

Agriculture is the leading occupation in the region. Rice is the staple food crop. Other food crops are pulses, potato, maize, and oil seeds. Jute is the principal cash crop. Tea is also produced commercially; the region is well known for Darjeeling and other high-quality teas.

Historically, Europe once regarded Bengal as "the richest country to trade with".^[43]

West Bengal

Main article: Economy of West Bengal

The service sector is the largest contributor to the gross domestic product of West Bengal, contributing 51% of the state domestic product compared to 27% from agriculture and 22% from industry.^[44] State industries are localized in the Kolkata region and the mineral-rich western highlands. Durgapur–Asansol colliery belt is home to a number of major steel plants.^[45] As of | 2004 | alt = As of 2003–2004}} West Bengal had the third-largest economy in India, with a net state domestic product of US$ 21.5 billion.^[44] During 2001–2002, the state's average SDP was more than 7.8%—outperforming the National GDP Growth.^[46] The state has promoted foreign direct investment, which has mostly occurred in the software and electronics fields;^[47] Kolkata is becoming a major hub for the information technology (IT) industry. Owing to the boom in Kolkata's and the overall state's economy, West Bengal as of 2005 had the third-fastest-growing economy in India.^[48]

Bangladesh

Main article: Economy of Bangladesh

Since 1990, Bangladesh has achieved an average annual growth rate of 5% according to the World Bank, despite the hurdles. The middle class and the consumer industry have seen some growth. Bangladesh has seen a sharp increase in foreign direct investment. A number ofmultinational corporations, including Unocal Corporation and Tata, have made major investments, the natural gas sector being a priority. In December 2005, the Central Bank of Bangladesh projected GDP growth around 6.5%.^[49] Although two-thirds of Bangladeshis are farmers, more than three quarters of Bangladesh's export earnings come from the garment industry,^[50] which began attracting foreign investors in the 1980s due to cheap labour and low conversion cost. In 2002, the industry exported US$5 billion worth of products.^[51] The industry now employs more than 3 million workers, 90% of whom are women.^[52] A large part of foreign currency earnings also comes from the remittances sent by expatriates living in other countries.

The provision of microcredit by Grameen Bank (founded by Muhammad Yunus) and by other similar organizations has contributed to the development of the economy of Bangladesh. Together, such organizations had about 5 million members by late 1990s.^[53] [54]

Culture

Main articles: Culture of West Bengal and Culture of Bangladesh

Bengali artists performing a traditional dance.

Baul singers at Basanta-Utsab, Shantiniketan.

Pohela Baishakhcelebration in Dhaka.

Durga Puja at theDhakeshwari Temple

The common Bengali language and culture anchors the shared tradition of two parts of politically divided Bengal. Bengal has a long tradition in folk literature, evidenced by the Charyapada, Mangalkavya, Shreekrishna Kirtana, Maimansingha Gitika or Thakurmar Jhuli. Bengali literature in the medieval age was often either religious (e.g. Chandidas), or adaptations from other languages (e.g. Alaol). During the Bengal Renaissance of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Bengali literature was modernized through the works of authors such as Michael Madhusudan Dutta, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam.

Rabindranath Tagorereshaped Bengali literatureand music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He isAsia's first Nobel laureate and composer of Jana Gana Manathe national anthem of India as well as Amar Shonar Banglathe national anthem ofBangladesh.

Satyajit Ray is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema.

Kazi Nazrul Islam was a revolutionary Bengali poet who led the Bengal Renaissance in Muslim majority areas of Bengal. He is the national poet of Bangladesh.

The Baul tradition is a unique heritage of Bangla folk music.^[55] The scholar saint Sri Anirvan loved Baul music, and in fact described himself as a simple Baul.^[56] Other folk music forms include Gombhira, Bhatiali and Bhawaiya. Folk music in Bengal is often accompanied by the ektara, a one-stringed instrument. Other instruments include the dotara, dhol, flute, and tabla. The region also has an active heritage in North Indian classical music.

Bengal had also been the harbinger of modernism in Indian arts. Abanindranath Tagore, one of the important 18th century artist from Bengal is often referred to as the father of Indian modern art. He had established the first non-British art academy in India known as the Kalabhavan within the premises of Santiniketan. Santiniketan in course of time had produced many important Indian artists likeGaganendranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy, Benode Bihari Mukherjeeand Ramkinkar Baij. In the post-independence era, Bengal had produced important artists like Somenath Hore, Meera Mukherjee and Ganesh Pyne.

Rice and fish are traditional favorite foods, leading to a saying that in Bengali,mach ar bhaath bangali baanaay, that translates as "fish and rice make a Bengali".^[57] Bengal's vast repertoire of fish-based dishes includes Hilsapreparations, a favorite among Bengalis. Bengalis make distinctive sweetmeatsfrom milk products, including Rôshogolla, Chômchôm, and several kinds ofPithe.

Bengali women commonly wear the shaŗi and the salwar kameez, often distinctly designed according to local cultural customs. In urban areas, many women and men wear Western-style attire. Among men, European dressing has greater acceptance. Men also wear traditional costumes such as the panjabi with dhuti orpyjama, often on religious occasions. The lungi, a kind of long skirt, is widely worn by Bangladeshi men.

The greatest religious festivals are the two Eids (Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha) for the Muslims, and the autumnalDurga Puja for Hindus.^[58] Christmas (called Bôŗodin (Great day) in Bangla), Buddha Purnima are other major religious festivals. Other festivities include Pohela Baishakh (the Bengali New Year), Basanta-Utsab, Nobanno, and Poush parbon (festival of Poush).

Bengali cinema are made both in Kolkata and Dhaka. The Kolkata film industry is older and particularly well known for its art films. Its long tradition of film making has produced world famous directors like Satyajit Ray, while contemporary directors include Buddhadev Dasgupta and Aparna Sen. Dhaka also has a vibrant commercial industry and more recently has been home to critically acclaimed directors like Tareque Masud. Mainstream Hindi films ofBollywood are also quite popular in both West Bengal and Bangladesh. Around 200 dailies are published in Bangladesh, along with more than 1800 periodicals. West Bengal had 559 published newspapers in 2005,^[59] of which 430 were in Bangla.^[59] Cricket and football are popular sports in the Bengal region. Local games include sports such as Kho Kho and Kabaddi, the later being the national sport of Bangladesh. An Indo-Bangladesh Bangla Games has been organized among the athletes of the Bengali speaking areas of the two countries.^[60]

Intra-Bengal relations today

Geographic, cultural, historic, and commercial ties are growing, and both countries recognize the importance of good relations. During and immediately after Bangladesh's struggle for independence from Pakistan in 1971, India assisted refugees from East Pakistan, and intervened militarily to help bring about the independence of Bangladesh. The Indo-Bangladesh border length of 4,095 km (2,545 mi), West Bengal has a border length of 2,216 km (1,377 mi).^[61] Despite overlapping historic, geographic and cultural ties, the relation between West Bengal andBangladesh is still well below the potential.^[62] The pan-Bengali sentiment among the people of the two parts of Bengal was at its height during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.^[63] While the government radio and national press in India might have backed the struggle out of strategic considerations, the Bengali broadcast and print media went out of its way to lend overwhelming support.^[63]

Frequent air services link Kolkata with Dhaka and Chittagong. A bus service between Kolkata and Dhaka is operational. The primary road link is the Jessore Road which crosses the border at Petrapole-Benapole about 175 km north-west of Kolkata. The Train service between Kolkata and Dhaka, which was stopped after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, was resumed in 2008.^[64]

Visa services are provided by Bangladesh's consulate at Kolkata's Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Road and India's high commissions in Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi. India has a liberal visa policy and nearly 500,000 visas^[62] are issued every year to Bangladeshi students,tourists, health-tourists and others who visit West Bengal and often transit to other parts of India. West Bengalis visit Bangladesh for limited numbers of tourism, pilgrimage, trade, expatriate assignments; there is significant potential for growth as Bangladesh's stability, economy, moderation in religion and tourist infrastructure improves. In addition West Bengal hosts the celebrated and controversial Bangladeshi authorTaslima Nasreen.

Undocumented immigration of Bangladeshi workers is a controversial issue^[62] championed by right-wing nationalist parties in India but finds little sympathy in West Bengal. India has fenced the border to control this flow but immigration is still continuing.^[65] A rallying cry for the right-wing Hindu parties in India is that the demographics changed such as in West Bengal's border district of Malda from Hindu-majority to Muslim-majority.

The official land border crossing at Petrapole-Benapole is the primary conduit for the over $1 billion trade between the two halves of Bengal. The volume of unofficial exports to Bangladesh from India is reportedly in the range of $350–500 million each year.^[66] Bangladesh argues thatIndia needs to open up its border more to Bangladeshi exports. Other landports between the two Bengals are Changrabandha-Burimari and Balurghat-Hili.

Cultural exchanges between the two parts of Bengal have been somewhat (but not fully) impacted by ups and downs in India-Bangladesh relations and in the influence of extremist Islamist groups in Bangladesh. West Bengal singers and actors complained about being rejected visas in previous years. Bangladesh television channels are widely watched in West Bengal. West Bengal media have an audience in Bangladesh. In foreign countries such as the U.S., Canada, UK, and UAE, it is common for Bengalis from both sides to form joint cultural associations and friendships, although inter-marriage is not significant, especially across religious barriers.

See also

Bengal portal

• History of Bengal
• History of India
• Bangladesh
• Bengali people
• Bangals and Ghotis
• List of Bengalis
• Bengali language
• Bengali cuisine
• Music of Bangladesh
• Music of Bengal
• Bengali cinema
• East Bengal
• West Bengal
• Bengal architecture

Notes

1. ^ The Kolkata metropolitan area has a population of over 14 million, making it the largest urban agglomeration in Bengal.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Provisional Population Totals: West Bengal". Census of India, 2001. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
3. ^ ^a b c World Bank Development Indicators Database, 2006.
4. ^ "West Bengal - Human development fact sheet". United Nations Development Programme. 2001. Retrieved 2007-03-01.^{[dead link]}
5. ^ "The World Factbook - Bangladesh".CIA World Factbook. 2001. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
6. ^ James Heitzman and Robert L. Worden, ed (1989). "Early History, 1000 B. C.-A. D. 1202". Bangladesh: A country study. Library of Congress.
7. ^ M.A. Amitabha Bhattacharyya, Historical Geography of Ancient and Early Mediaeval Bengal, Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, 1977, pp. 61–62.
8. ^ Robinson, Rowan (1995). The great book of hemp. Inner Traditions. p. 107.ISBN 9780892815418.
9. ^http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/inhemp/4chapt9.htm
10. ^ ^a b Sultana, Sabiha. "Settlement in Bengal (Early Period)". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 2007-10-07. Retrieved 2007-03-04.
11. ^ "History of Bangladesh". Bangladesh Student Association. Archived from the original on 2006-12-19. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
12. ^ "4000-year old settlement unearthed in Bangladesh". Xinhua. 2006-March.
13. ^ Chowdhury, AM. "Gangaridai".Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Retrieved 2006-09-08.
14. ^ "Shashank". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
15. ^ "Islam (in Bengal)". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
16. ^ Chaudhury, S; Mohsin, KM."Sirajuddaula". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
17. ^ Fiske, John. "The Famine of 1770 in Bengal". The Unseen World, and other essays. University of Adelaide Library Electronic Texts Collection. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
18. ^ (Baxter 1997, pp. 30–32)
19. ^ (Baxter 1997, pp. 39–40)
20. ^ Chitta Ranjan Misra. "United Bengal Movement". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 2007-10-10. Retrieved 2007-02-06.
21. ^ ^a b Harun-or-Rashid. "Partition of Bengal, 1947". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
22. ^ Suranjan Das. "Calcutta Riots (1946)". Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the originalon 2007-03-07. Retrieved 2007-02-06.
23. ^ (Baxter 1997, pp. 62–63)
24. ^ (Baxter 1997, pp. 78–79)
25. ^ Salik, Siddiq (1978). Witness to Surrender. Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-577264-4.
26. ^ Burke, S (1973). "The Postwar Diplomacy of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971". Asian Survey 13 (11): 1036–1049.doi:10.1525/as.1973.13.11.01p0385c.
27. ^ (Bennett & Hindle 1996, pp. 63–70)
28. ^ Biswas, Soutik (2006-04-16)."Calcutta's colourless campaign".BBC. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
29. ^ Ali, A (1996). "Vulnerability of Bangladesh to climate change and sea level rise through tropical cyclones and storm surges". Water, Air, & Soil Pollution92 (1-2): 171–179.doi:10.1007/BF00175563 (inactive 2009-11-14).
30. ^ Summit Elevations: Frequent Internet Errors. Retrieved 2006-04-13.
31. ^ IUCN (1997). "Sundarban wildlife sanctuaries Bangladesh". World Heritage Nomination-IUCN Technical Evaluation.
32. ^ "Statistical Facts about India". www.indianmirror.com. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
33. ^ "National Himalayan Sandakphu-Gurdum Trekking Expedition: 2006". Youth Hostels Association of India: West Bengal State Branch. Archived from the original on 2006-10-24. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
34. ^ Chowdhury U. K., Biswas B. K., Chowdhury T. R. (2000). "Groundwater arsenic contamination in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India".Environmental Health Perspectives 108(4): 393–397. doi:10.2307/3454378.
35. ^ Adjusted population, p.4, "Population Census 2001, Preliminary Report"(PDF). Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. 2001-08.
36. ^ "Data on Religion". Census of India (2001). Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
37. ^ ^a b "Introduction and Human Development Indices for West Bengal" (PDF). West Bengal Human Development Report 2004. Development and Planning Department, Government of West Bengal. May 2004. pp. pp4–6. ISBN 81-7955-030-3. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
38. ^ "An Indian life: Life expectancy in our nation". India Together. Civil Society Information Exchange Pvt. Ltd. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
39. ^ "World Health Report 2005". World Health Organization.
40. ^ "2005 Human Development Report".UNDP.
41. ^ Bangladesh Country Statistics,Unicef
42. ^ "Wandering Gaia". "The Give and Take of the Ganges" WordPress.com. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
43. ^ Nanda, J. N (2005). Bengal: the unique state. Concept Publishing Company. p. 10. ISBN 9788180691492. Retrieved 2010-11-22. "Bengal [...] was rich in the production and export of grain, salt, fruit, liquors and wines, precious metals and ornaments besides the output of its handlooms in silk and cotton. Europe referred to Bengal as the richest country to trade with."
44. ^ ^a b "The State Economy" (PDF).Indian States Economy and Business: West Bengal. India Brand Equity Foundation, Confederation of Indian Industry. p. 9. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
45. ^ "Economy". West Bengal. Suni System (P) Ltd. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
46. ^ "Basic Information". About West Bengal. West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation. Archived fromthe original on 2006-03-29. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
47. ^ "Dasgupta, 2002". Retrieved 2006-04-11.^{[dead link]}
48. ^ "Consul General Henry V. Jardine to The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, October 20, 2005". Retrieved 2006-04-11.
49. ^ Annual Report 2004-2005, Bangladesh Bank
50. ^ Roland, B (2005-01-06). "Bangladesh Garments Aim to Compete". BBC. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
51. ^ Rahman, S (2004). "Global Shift: Bangladesh Garment Industry in Perspective". Asian Affairs 26 (1): 75–91.
52. ^ Begum, N (2001). "Enforcement of Safety Regulations in Garment sector in Bangladesh". Proc. Growth of Garment Industry in Bangladesh: Economic and Social dimension. pp. 208–226.
53. ^ Schreiner, Mark (2003). "A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh,". Development Policy Review 21 (3): 357–382.doi:10.1111/1467-7679.00215.
54. ^ "Yunus sees big Answers in Micro-credit" Globe and Mail article |http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080611.RYUNUS11/TPStory/Business
55. ^ "The Bauls of Bengal". Folk Music. BengalOnline. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
56. ^http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/A_0246.htm
57. ^ Gertjan de Graaf, Abdul Latif."Development of freshwater fish farming and poverty alleviation: A case study from Bangladesh" (PDF). Aqua KE Government. Retrieved 2006-10-22.
58. ^ "Durga Puja". Festivals of Bengal. West Bengal Tourism, Government of West Bengal. Retrieved 2006-10-28.
59. ^ ^a b "General Review". Registrar of Newspapers for India. Retrieved 2006-09-01.
60. ^ "Bangladesh dominate Indo-Bangla Games, clinch 45 gold medals". Yahoo Web Services India Pvt Ltd. 2008-02-27. Retrieved 2008-02-27.^{[dead link]}
61. ^ "Union Home Secretary Chairs a High Level Empowered Committee".Embassy of India: Foreign Relations. Government of India. December 10, 1998. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
62. ^ ^a b c "Address by External Affairs Minister Shri Natwar Singh at India-Bangladesh Dialogue Organised by Centre for Policy Dialogue and India International Centre". Speeches. Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi. 2005-08-07. Retrieved 2008-02-26.^{[dead link]}
63. ^ ^a b Sinha, Dipankar (July–August 2005)."E par Bangla, O par Bangla, no thank you". Himal South Asian (Kathmandu, Nepal: The Southasia Trust) 17 (1). Archived from the original on 2008-04-02. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
64. ^ "India-Bangladesh train to resume in April - official". Reuters. 2008-02-25. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
65. ^ Chattopadhyay, S.S (June 2007)."Constant traffic". Frontline (The Hindu)24 (11). Retrieved 2008-02-26.
66. ^ Mishra, Richa (November 11, 2004)."Indo-Bangla informal trade cause for concern: FICCI". The Hindu Business Line (The Hindu). Retrieved 2008-03-27.

References

• Baxter, C (1997). Bangladesh, From a Nation to a State. Westview Press. pp. 0813336325. ISBN 185984121X
• Bennett, A; Hindle, J (1996). London Review of Books: An Anthology. Verso. pp. 63–70. ISBN 185984121X

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bengal

Geo Links for Bengal

• Banglapedia-specialised site
• www.hostkingdom.net- List of rulers of Bengal
• WorldStatesmen- here India

Maps

Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at University of Texas at Austin Libraries

• India from The Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd, 1923
• India 1760 from The Public Schools Historical Atlas edited by C. Colbeck. Longmans, Green, and Co. 1905
• India 1882 from A Dictionary Practical, Theoretical, and Historical of Commerce and Commercial Navigation by J.R. M'Culloch. Longmans, Green and Co. London, 1882

• Art and artists of Bengal

[show]v · d · eBengali culture

[show]v · d · eCountries and territories of South Asia

• 24°00′N 88°00′ECoordinates: 24°00′N 88°00′E

Categories: Bengal | Geography of Bangladesh | Geography of India | History of Bangladesh | Regions of India | Divided regions | Historical Indian regions

Adivasi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An Adivasi woman from the Kutia Kondhtribal group in Orissa

Adivasi is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups claimed to be theaboriginal population of India.^[1][2][3] They comprise a substantial indigenous minority of the population of India.

Adivasi societies are particularly present in the Indian states of Kerala, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh,Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal,Mizoram and other northeastern states, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Many smaller tribal groups are quite sensitive to ecological degradation caused by modernization. Both commercial forestry and intensive agriculture have proved destructive to the forests that had endured swidden agriculture for many centuries.^[4] Officially recognized by the Indian government as "Scheduled Tribes" in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India, they are often grouped together with scheduled castes in the category "Scheduled Castes and Tribes", which is eligible for certain affirmative action measures.

Contents  [hide] 1 Connotations of the word 'Adivasi' 2 Scheduled tribes 3 Primitive tribes 4 Geographical overview 5 The peopling of India 6 Disruptions during Mughal and colonial periods 7 Tribal classification criteria and demands 7.1 Demands for tribal classification 7.2 Endogamy, exogamy and ethnogenesis 7.3 Other criteria 8 Religion 8.1 Hinduism 8.1.1 Adivasi roots of modern Hinduism 8.1.2 Adivasi Saints 8.1.3 Sages 8.1.4 Maharishis 8.1.5 Avatars 8.1.6 Other Tribals and Hinduism 8.2 Sarna 8.3 Demands for a separate religion code 9 Tribal system 10 Education 11 Economy 12 Participation in Indian independence movement 12.1 List of rebellions against British rule 13 Some notable Scheduled Tribes 14 Gallery 15 See also 16 References 17 Further reading 18 External links

[edit]Connotations of the word 'Adivasi'

Although terms such as atavika (Sanskrit for forest dwellers), vanvasi or girijan (hill people)^[5] are also used for the tribes of India, adivasicarries the specific meaning of being the original and autochthonous inhabitants of a given region, and was specifically coined for that purpose in the 1930s.^[6] Over a period of time, unlike the terms "aborigines" or "tribes", the word "adivasi" has also developed a connotation of past autonomy which was disrupted during the British colonial period in India and has not been restored.^[7] Opposition to usage of the term is varied, and it has been argued that the "original inhabitant" contention is based on dubious claims and that the adivasi - non adivasi divide that is created is artificial.^[8] It should also be noted that in Northeast India, the term Adivasi applies only to the Tea-tribes imported from Central India during colonial times, while all tribal groups refer collectively to themselves by using the English word "tribes".

[edit]Scheduled tribes

The Constitution of India, Article 366 (25) defines Scheduled Tribes as "such tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to the scheduled Tribes (STs) for the purposes of this Constitution". In Article 342, the procedure to be followed for specification of a scheduled tribe is prescribed. However, it does not contain the criterion for the specification of any community as scheduled tribe. An often used criterion is based on attributes such as:

• Geographical isolation - they live in cloistered, exclusive, remote and inhospitable areas such as hills and forests.
• Backwardness - their livelihood is based on primitive agriculture, a low-value closed economy with a low level of technology that leads to their poverty. They have low levels of literacy and health.
• Distinctive culture, language and religion - communities have developed their own distinctive culture, language and religion.
• Shyness of contact – they have a marginal degree of contact with other cultures and people.^[9]

[edit]Primitive tribes

The Scheduled Tribe groups who were identified as more backward communities among the tribal population groups have been categorised as 'Primitive Tribal Groups' (PTGs) by the Government at the Centre in 1975. So far seventy-five tribal communities have been identified as 'primitive tribal groups' in different States of India. These hunting, food-gathering, and some agricultural communities, who have been identified as more backward communities among the tribal population groups need special programmes for their sustainable development. The primitive tribes are awakening and demanding their rights for special reservation quota for them.^[10]

[edit]Geographical overview

A girl of the Chenchu tribe in theNallamala forest, Andhra Pradesh

There is a substantial list of Scheduled Tribes in India recognised as tribal under the Constitution of India. Tribal peoples constitute 8.2% of the nation's total population, over 84 million people according to the 2001 census. One concentration lives in a belt along the Himalayas stretching through Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand in the west, to Assam,Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland in the northeast. In the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland, more than 90% of the population is tribal. However, in the remaining northeast states of Assam, Manipur, Sikkim, and Tripura, tribal peoples form between 20 and 30% of the population.

Another concentration lives in the hilly areas of central India (Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh,Orissa and, to a lesser extent, Andhra Pradesh); in this belt, which is bounded by the Narmada River to the north and the Godavari River to the southeast, tribal peoples occupy the slopes of the region's mountains. Other tribals, including the Santals, live in Jharkhand and West Bengal. Central Indian states have the country's largest tribes, and, taken as a whole, roughly 75% of the total tribal population live there, although the tribal population there accounts for only around 10% of the region's total population.

There are smaller numbers of tribal people in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala in south India; in western India in Gujarat and Rajasthan, and in the union territories of Lakshadweep and theAndaman Islands and Nicobar Islands. About one percent of the populations of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are tribal, whereas about six percent in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are members of tribes.

[edit]The peopling of India

The concept of 'original inhabitant' is directly related to the initial peopling of India, which, due to the debate on topics such as the Indo-Aryan migration hypothesis, has been a contentious area of research and discourse.^[11] Some anthropologists hypothesize that the region was settled by multiple human migrations over tens of millennia, which makes it even harder to select certain groups as being truly aboriginal.^[12]One narrative, largely based on genetic research, describes Negritos, similar to the Andamanese adivasis of today, as the first humans to colonize India, likely 30-65 thousand years before present (kybp).^[13][14] 60% of all Indians share the mtDNA haplogroup M, which is universal among Andamanese islander adivasis and might be a genetic legacy of the postulated first Indians.^[15] Some anthropologists theorize that these settlers were displaced by invading Austro-Asiatic-speaking Australoid people (who largely shared skin pigmentation and physiognomy with the Negritos, but had straight rather than kinky hair), and adivasi tribes such as the Irulas trace their origins to that displacement.^[16][17]The Oraon adivasi tribe of eastern India and the Korku tribe of western India are considered to be examples of groups of Australoid origin.^[18][19] Subsequent to the Australoids, some anthropologists and geneticists theorize that Caucasoids (including both Dravidians andIndo-Aryans) and Mongoloids (Sino-Tibetans) immigrated into India: the Dravidians possibly from Iran,^[20][21][22] the Indo-Aryans possibly from the Central Asian steppes^[21][23][24] and the Tibeto-Burmans possibly from the Himalayan and north-eastern borders of the subcontinent.^[25]None of these hypotheses is free from debate and disagreement.

Ethnic origins and linguistic affiliations in India match only inexactly, however: while the Oraon adivasis are classified as an Australoid group, their language, called Kurukh, is Dravidian.^[26] Khasis and Nicobarese are considered to be Mongoloid groups^[27][28] and the Munda andSantals are Australoid groups,^[29][30][31] but all four speak Austro-Asiatic languages.^[27][28][29] The Bhils and Gonds are frequently classified as Australoid groups,^[32] yet Bhil languages are Indo-European and the Gondi language is Dravidian.^[26] Also, in post-colonial India, tribal languages suffered huge setbacks with the formation of linguistic states after 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act. For example, under state-sponsored educational pressure, Irula children are being taught Tamil and a sense of shame has begun to be associated with speaking the Irula language among some children and educated adults.^[16] Similarly, the Santals are "gradually adopting languages of the areas inhabited, like Oriya in Orissa, Hindi in Bihar and Bengali in West Bengal."^[30]

[edit]Disruptions during Mughal and colonial periods

Although considered uncivilized and primitive,^[33] adivasis were usually not held to be intrinsically impure by surrounding (usually, caucasoid - Dravidian or Aryan) caste Hindu populations, unlike Dalits, who were.^[6][34] Thus, the adivasi origins of Maharishi (Sanksrit: Great Sage)Valmiki, who composed the Ramayana Hindu religious epic, were acknowledged,^[35] as were the origins of adivasi tribes such as the Grasiaand Bhilala, which descended from mixed Rajput and Bhil marriages.^[36][37] Unlike the subjugation of the dalits, the adivasis often enjoyed autonomy and, depending on region, evolved mixed hunter-gatherer and farming economies, controlling their lands as a joint patrimony of the tribe.^[33][38][39] In some areas, securing adivasi approval and support was considered crucial by local rulers,^[6][40] and larger adivasi groups were able to sustain their own kingdoms in central India.^[6] The Gond Rajas of Garha-Mandla and Chanda are examples of an adivasi aristocracy that ruled in this region, and were "not only the hereditary leaders of their Gond subjects, but also held sway over substantial communities of non-tribals who recognized them as their feudal lords."^[38][41]

This relative autonomy and collective ownership of adivasi land by adivasis was severely disrupted by the advent of the Mughals in the early 16th century. Similarly, the British beginning in the 18th century added to the consolidation of feudalism in India, first under the jagirdari system and then under the zamindari system.^[42] Beginning with the Permanent Settlement imposed by the British in Bengal and Bihar, which later became the template for a deepening of feudalism throughout India, the older social and economic system in the country began to alter radically.^[43][44] Land, both forest areas belonging to adivasis and settled farmland belonging to non-adivasi peasants, was rapidly made the legal property of British-designated zamindars (landlords), who in turn moved to extract the maximum economic benefit possible from their newfound property and subjects without regard to historical tenure or ownership.^[45] Adivasi lands sometimes experienced an influx of non-local settlers, often brought from far away (as in the case of Muslims and Sikhs brought to Kol territory)^[46] by the zamindars to better exploit local land, forest and labor.^[42][43] Deprived of the forests and resources they traditionally depended on and sometimes coerced to pay taxes, many adivasis were forced to borrow at usurious rates from moneylenders, often the zamindars themselves.^[47][48] When they were unable to pay, that forced them to become bonded laborers for the zamindars.^[49] Often, far from paying off the principal of their debt, they were unable even to offset the compounding interest, and this was made the justification for their children working for the zamindar after the death of the initial borrower.^[49] In the case of the Andamanese adivasis, long isolated from the outside world in autonomous societies, mere contact with outsiders was often sufficient to set off deadly epidemics in tribal populations,^[50] and it is alleged that some sections of the British government directly attempted to destroy some tribes.^[51]

Land dispossession and subjugation by British and zamindar interests resulted in a number of adivasi revolts in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, such as the Santal hul (or Santal revolt) of 1855-56.^[52] Although these were suppressed ruthlessly by the governing British authority (the East India Company prior to 1858, and the British government after 1858), partial restoration of privileges to adivasi elites (e.g. to Mankis, the leaders of Munda tribes) and some leniency in tax burdens resulted in relative calm, despite continuing and widespread dispossession, from the late nineteenth century onwards.^[46][53] The economic deprivation, in some cases, triggered internal adivasi migrations within India that would continue for another century, including as labor for the emerging tea plantations in Assam.^[54] n gujrat

[edit]Tribal classification criteria and demands

Scarification, a traditional symbol of Great Andamanese tribal identity (1901 photo)

Population complexities, and the controversies surrounding ethnicity and language in India, sometimes make the official recognition of groups as adivasis (by way of inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes list) political and contentious. However, regardless of their language family affiliations, Australoid and Negrito groups that have survived as distinct forest, mountain or island dwelling tribes in India and are often classified as adivasi.^[55] The relatively autonomous Mongoloid tribal groups of Northeastern India (including Khasis, Apatani and Nagas), who are mostly Austro-Asiatic or Tibeto-Burman speakers, are also considered to be adivasis: this area comprises 7.5% of India's land area but 20% of its adivasi population.^[56] However, not all autonomous northeastern groups are considered adivasis; for instance, the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Meitei of Manipur were once tribal but, having been settled for many centuries, are caste Hindus.^[57]

It is also difficult, for a given social grouping, to definitively decide whether it is a 'caste' or a 'tribe'. A combination of internal social organization, relationship with other groups, self-classification and perception by other groups has to be taken into account to make a categorization, which is at best inexact and open to doubt.^[58] These categorizations have been diffused for thousands of years, and even ancient formulators of caste-discriminatory legal codes (which usually only applied to settled populations, and not adivasis) were unable to come up with clean distinctions.^[59]

[edit]Demands for tribal classification

An additional difficulty in deciding whether a group meets the criteria to be adivasi or not are the aspirational movements created by the federal and state benefits, including job and educational reservations, enjoyed by groups listed as scheduled tribes (STs).^[60] In Manipur, Meitei commentators have pointed to the lack of scheduled tribe status as a key economic disadvantage for Meiteis competing for jobs against groups that are classified as scheduled tribes.^[57] In Assam, Rajbongshi representatives have demanded scheduled tribe status as well.^[61] In Rajasthan, Haryana and other northern states, the Gujjar community has demanded ST status, even blockading the national capital of Delhi to press their demand.^[62] In several cases, these claims to tribalhood are disputed by tribes who are already listed in the schedule and fear economic losses if more powerful groups are recognized as scheduled tribes; for instance, the Rajbongshi demand faces resistance from the Bodo tribe,^[61] and the Meena tribe has vigorously opposed Gujjar aspirations to be recognized as a scheduled tribe.^[63]

[edit]Endogamy, exogamy and ethnogenesis

Part of the challenge is that the endogamous nature of tribes is also conformed to by the vast majority of Hindu castes. Indeed, many historians and anthropologists believe that caste endogamy reflects the once-tribal origins of the various groups who now constitute the settled Hindu castes.^[64] Another defining feature of caste Hindu society, which is often used to contrast them with Muslim and other social groupings, is lineage/clan (or gotra) and village exogamy.^[65][66] However, these in-marriage taboos are also held ubiquitously among tribal groups, and do not serve as reliable differentiating markers between caste and tribe.^[67][68][69] Again, this could be an ancient import from tribal society into settled Hindu castes.^[70] Interestingly, tribes such as the Muslim Gujjars of Kashmir and the Kalash of Pakistan observe these exogamous traditions in common with caste Hindus and non-Kashmiri adivasis, though their surrounding Muslim populations do not.^[65][71]

Some anthropologists, however, draw a distinction between tribes who have continued to be tribal and tribes that have been absorbed into caste society in terms of the breakdown of tribal (and therefore caste) boundaries, and the proliferation of new mixed caste groups. In other words, ethnogenesis (the construction of new ethnic identities) in tribes occurs through a fission process (where groups splinter-off as new tribes, which preserves endogamy), whereas with settled castes it usually occurs through intermixture (in violation of strict endogamy).^[72]

[edit]Other criteria

Unlike castes, which form part of a complex and interrelated local economic exchange system, tribes tend to form self-sufficient economic units. For most tribal people, land-use rights traditionally derive simply from tribal membership. Tribal society tends to the egalitarian, with itsleadership based on ties of kinship and personality rather than on hereditary status. Tribes typically consist of segmentary lineages whose extended families provide the basis for social organization and control. Tribal religion recognizes no authority outside the tribe.

Any of these criteria may not apply in specific instances. Language does not always give an accurate indicator of tribal or caste status. Especially in regions of mixed population, many tribal groups have lost their mother tongues and simply speak local or regional languages. In parts of Assam - an area historically divided between warring tribes and villages - increased contact among villagers began during the colonial period, and has accelerated since independence in 1947. A pidgin Assamese developed while educated tribal members learned Hindi and, in the late twentieth century, English.

Self-identification and group loyalty do not provide unfailing markers of tribal identity either. In the case of stratified tribes, the loyalties of clan, kin, and family may well predominate over those of tribe. In addition, tribes cannot always be viewed as people living apart; the degree of isolation of various tribes has varied tremendously. The Gonds, Santals, and Bhils traditionally have dominated the regions in which they have lived. Moreover, tribal society is not always more egalitarian than the rest of the rural populace; some of the larger tribes, such as the Gonds, are highly stratified.

The apparently wide fluctuation in estimates of South Asia's tribal population through the twentieth century gives a sense of how unclear the distinction between tribal and nontribal can be. India's 1931 census enumerated 22 million tribal people, in 1941 only 10 million were counted, but by 1961 some 30 million and in 1991 nearly 68 million tribal members were included. The differences among the figures reflect changing census criteria and the economic incentives individuals have to maintain or reject classification as a tribal member.

These gyrations of census data serve to underline the complex relationship between caste and tribe. Although, in theory, these terms represent different ways of life and ideal types, in reality they stand for a continuum of social groups. In areas of substantial contact between tribes and castes, social and cultural pressures have often tended to move tribes in the direction of becoming castes over a period of years. Tribal peoples with ambitions for social advancement in Indian society at large have tried to gain the classification of caste for their tribes. On occasion, an entire tribe or part of a tribe joined a Hindu sect and thus entered the caste system en masse. If a specific tribe engaged in practices that Hindus deemed polluting, the tribe's status when it was assimilated into the caste hierarchy would be affected.

[edit]Religion

Main article: Tribal religions in India

The majority of Adivasi practice Hinduism and Christianity. During the last two decades Adivasi from Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand have converted to Protestant groups. Adivasi beliefs vary by tribe, and are usually different from the historical Vedic religion, with its monisticunderpinnings, Indo-European deities (who are often cognates of ancient Iranian, Greek and Roman deities, e.g. Mitra/Mithra/Mithras), lack of idol worship and lack of a concept of reincarnation.^[73] The "centre of Rig Vedic religion was the Yajna, the sacrificial fire" and there was "no Atma, no Brahma, no Moksha, no idol worship in the Rig Veda."^[74] Two specific rituals held great importance and it is known that, "when the Indo-Aryans and the Persians formed a single people, they performed sacrifices (Vedic yajna: Avestan yasna), and that they already had a sacred drink (Vedic soma: Avestan haoma)."^[75]

[edit]Hinduism

[edit]Adivasi roots of modern Hinduism

Some historians and anthropologists assert that much of what constitutes popular Hinduism today is actually descended from an amalgamation of adivasi faiths, idol worship practices and deities, rather than the original Indo-Aryan faith.^[74][76][77] This also includes the sacred status of certain animals and plants, such as monkeys, cows, peacocks, cobras (nagas), elephants, peepul, tulsi (holy basil) andneem, which may once have held totemic importance for certain adivasi tribes.^[76]

[edit]Adivasi Saints

• Saint Buddhu Bhagat, led the Kol Insurrection (1831-1832) aimed against tax imposed on Mundas by Muslim rulers.
• Saint Dhira or Kannappa Nayanar[4], one of 63 Nayanar Shaivite saints, a hunter from whom Lord Shiva gladly accepted food offerings. It is said that he poured water from his mouth on the Shivlingam and offered the Lord swine flesh.[5]
• Saint Dhudhalinath, Koli, Gujarati, a 17th or 18th century devotee (P. 4, The Story of Historic People of India-The Kolis)
• Saint Ganga Narain, led the Bhumij Revolt (1832-1833) aimed against missionaries and British colonialists.
• Saint Girnari Velnathji, Koli, Gujarati of Junagadh, a 17th or 18th century devotee ^[78]
• Saint Gurudev Kalicharan Brahma or Guru Brahma, a Bodo whose founded the Brahma Dharma aimed against missionaries and colonialists. The Brahma Dharma movement sought to unite peoples of all religions to worship God together and survives even today.
• Saint Jatra Oraon, Oraon, led the Tana Bhagat Movement (1914–1919) aimed against the missionaries and British colonialists
• Saint Sri Koya Bhagat, Koli, Gujarati, a 17th or 18th century devotee ^[78]
• Saint Tantya Mama (Bhil), a Bhil after whom a movement is named after - the "Jananayak Tantya Bhil"
• Saint Tirumangai Alvar, Kallar, composed the six Vedangas in beautiful Tamil verse [6]

[edit]Sages

• Bhaktaraj Bhadurdas, Koli, Gujarati, a 17th or 18th century devotee ^[78]
• Bhakta Shabari, a Bhil woman that offered Shri Rama and Shri Laxmana her half-eaten ber fruit, which they gratefully accepted when they were searching for Shri Sita Devi in the forest.
• Madan Bhagat, Koli, Gujarati, a 17th or 18th century devotee ^[78]
• Sany Kanji Swami, Koli, Gujarati, a 17th or 18th century devotee ^[78]
• Bhaktaraj Valram, Koli, Gujarati, a 17th or 18th century devotee ^[78]

[edit]Maharishis

• Maharshi Matanga,^[79] Matanga Bhil, Guru of Bhakta Shabari. In fact, Chandalas are often addressed as 'Matanga 'in passages like Varaha Purana 1.139.91
• Maharshi Valmiki, Kirata Bhil, composed the Ramayana.^[35] He is considered to be an avatar in the Balmiki community.

[edit]Avatars

• Birsa Bhagwan or Birsa Munda, considered an avatar of Khasra Kora. People approached him as Singbonga, the supreme spirit. He converted even Christians to his own sect.[7] He was against conversions by missionaries. He wanted not only political, but religious freedom as well![8] He and his clan, the Mundas, were connected with Vaishnavite traditions as they were influenced by Sri Chaitanya.[9] Birsa was very close to the Panre brothers Vaishnavites.
• Kirata - the form of Lord Shiva as a hunter. It is mentioned in the Mahabharata. The Karppillikkavu Sree Mahadeva Temple, Kerala adores Lord Shiva in this avatar and is known to be one of the oldest surviving temples in Bharat.
• Vettakkorumakan, the son of Lord Kirata.
• Kaladutaka or 'Vaikunthanatha', Kallar (robber), avatar of Lord Vishnu.[10]

[edit]Other Tribals and Hinduism

Some Hindus believe that Indian tribals are close to the romantic ideal of the ancient silvan culture^[80] of the Vedic people. Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar said:

"The tribals "can be given yajñopavîta (…) They should be given equal rights and footings in the matter of religious rights, in temple worship, in the study of Vedas, and in general, in all our social and religious affairs. This is the only right solution for all the problems of casteism found nowadays in our Hindu society."^[81]

At the Lingaraja temple in Bhubaneswar (11th century), there are Brahmin and Badu (tribal) priests. The Badus have the most intimate contact with the deity of the temple, and only they can bathe and adorn it.^[82]

The Bhil tribe is mentioned in the Mahabharata. The Bhil boy Eklavya's teacher was Drona, and he had the honour to be invited toYudhisthira's Rajasuya Yajna at Indraprastha.^[83] Indian tribals were also part of royal armies in the Ramayana and in the Arthasastra.^[84]

Bhakta Shabari was a Bhil woman that offered Shri Rama and Shri Laxmana 'ber' when they were searching for Shri Sita in the forest.Maharishi Matanga, a Bhil became a Brahmana.

[edit]Sarna

Some western authors and Indian sociologists refer to adivasi beliefs as animism and spirit worship, and hold them to be distinct fromHinduism, Christianity or Islam. In Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Orissa states, their religion is sometimes called Sarna. The Jharkhand movement gave the Santals an opportunity to create a 'great tradition' of their own.^[85] As Orans reported, "The movement is spoken of in the following terms 'we should not leave our religion; we should continue to use rice-beer; we should have our worship at the sacred grove; also we should not stop eating beef. We will call our religion Sarna Dhorom.' ^[86] Sarna is the Munda word for 'Sacred Grove' while Dhorom is the Oriya word meaning 'religion'.^[87]

Sarna involves belief in a great spirit called the Sing Bonga. Santhal belief holds the world to be inhabited by numerous spiritual beings of different kinds. Santhals consider themselves as living and doing everything in close association with these spirits. Rituals are performed under groves of Sal trees called Jaher (or sacred grove), where Bonga is believed to appear or express himself. Often, Jaher are found in the forests.

According to the mythology of the Santhal community, the genesis of the 'Sarna' religion occurred when the 'Santhal tribals had gone to the forest for hunting and they started the discussion about their 'Creator and Savior' while they were taking rest under a tree. They questioned themselves that who is their God? Whether the Sun, the Wind or the Cloud? Finally, they came to a conclusion that they would leave an arrow in the sky and wherever the arrow would target that will be the God's house. They left an arrow in the sky; it fell down under a Sal tree. Then, they started worshiping the Sal tree and named their religion as 'Sarna' because it is derived from a Sal tree.^{[citation needed]}4 Thus, Sarna religion came into existence. There are priests and an assistant priests called "Naikey" and "Kudam Naike" in every Santhal village.

[edit]Demands for a separate religion code

Some adivasi organizations have demanded that a distinct religious code be listed for adivasis in the 2011. All India Adivasi Conference held on 01.01.2011 and 02.01.2011 at Burnpur, Asansol, West Bengal. 750 delegates were present from all part of india and casted their vote for Religion code as Sari Dhorom - 632, Sarna - 51, Kherwalism - 14 and others religion - 03 Census of India.^[88]

[edit]Tribal system

Tribals are not part of the caste system,^[89] and usually constitute egalitarian societies. Christian tribals do not automatically lose their traditional tribal rules.

When in 1891 a missionary asked 150 Munda Christians to "inter-dine" with people of different rank, only 20 Christians did so, and many converts lost their new faith. Father Haghenbeek concluded on this episode that these rules are not "pagan", but a sign of "national sentiment and pride", and wrote:

"On the contrary, while proclaiming the equality of all men before God, we now tell them: preserve your race pure, keep your customs, refrain from eating with Lohars (blacksmiths), Turis (bamboo workers) and other people of lower rank. To become good Christians, it (inter-dining) is not required."^[90]

However, many scholars argue that the claim that tribals are an egalitarian society in contrast to a caste-based society is a part of a larger political agenda by some to maximize any differences from tribal and urban societies. According to scholar Koenraad Elst, caste practices and social taboos among Indian tribals date back to antiquity:

"The Munda tribals not only practise tribal endogamy and commensality, but also observe a jâti division within the tribe, buttressed by notions of social pollution, a mythological explanation and harsh punishments. A Munda Catholic theologian testifies: The tribals of Chhotanagpur are an endogamous tribe. They usually do not marry outside the tribal community, because to them the tribe is sacred. The way to salvation is the tribe. Among the Santals, it is tabooed to marry outside the tribe or inside ones clan, just as Hindus marry inside their caste and outside their gotra. More precisely: To protect their tribal solidarity, theSantals have very stringent marriage laws. A Santal cannot marry a non-Santal or a member of his own clan. The former is considered as a threat to the tribe's integrity, while the latter is considered incestuous. Among the Ho of Chhotanagpur, the trespasses which occasion the exclusion from the tribe without chance of appeal, are essentially those concerning endogamy and exogamy."

Inter-dining has also been prohibited by many Indian tribal peoples.

[edit]Education

Extending the system of primary education into tribal areas and reserving places for tribal children in middle and high schools and higher education institutions are central to government policy, but efforts to improve a tribe's educational status have had mixed results. Recruitment of qualified teachers and determination of the appropriate language of instruction also remain troublesome. Commission after commission on the "language question" has called for instruction, at least at the primary level, in the students' native tongue. In some regions, tribal children entering school must begin by learning the official regional language, often one completely unrelated to their tribal tongue.

Many tribal schools are plagued by high dropout rates. Children attend for the first three to four years of primary school and gain a smattering of knowledge, only to lapse into illiteracy later. Few who enter continue up to the tenth grade; of those who do, few manage to finish high school. Therefore, very few are eligible to attend institutions of higher education, where the high rate of attrition continues. Members of agrarian tribes like the Gonds often are reluctant to send their children to school, needing them, they say, to work in the fields. On the other hand, in those parts of the northeast where tribes have generally been spared the wholesale onslaught of outsiders, schooling has helped tribal people to secure political and economic benefits. The education system there has provided a corps of highly trained tribal members in the professions and high-ranking administrative posts.

An academy for teaching and preserving Adivasi languages and culture was established in 1999 by the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre. The Adivasi Academy is located at Tejgadh in Gujarat.

[edit]Economy

Most tribes are concentrated in heavily forested areas that combine inaccessibility with limited political or economic significance. Historically, the economy of most tribes was subsistence agriculture or hunting and gathering. Tribal members traded with outsiders for the few necessities they lacked, such as salt and iron. A few local Hindu craftsmen might provide such items as cooking utensils.

In the early 20th century, however, large areas fell into the hands of non-tribals, on account of improved transportation and communications. Around 1900, many regions were opened by the government to settlement through a scheme by which inward migrants received ownership of land free in return for cultivating it. For tribal people, however, land was often viewed as a common resource, free to whoever needed it. By the time tribals accepted the necessity of obtaining formal land titles, they had lost the opportunity to lay claim to lands that might rightfully have been considered theirs. The colonial and post-independence regimes belatedly realized the necessity of protecting tribals from the predations of outsiders and prohibited the sale of tribal lands. Although an important loophole in the form of land leases was left open, tribes made some gains in the mid-twentieth century, and some land was returned to tribal peoples despite obstruction by local police and land officials.

In the 1970s, tribal peoples came again under intense land pressure, especially in central India. Migration into tribal lands increased dramatically, as tribal people lost title to their lands in many ways – lease, forfeiture from debts, or bribery of land registry officials. Other non-tribals simply squatted, or even lobbied governments to classify them as tribal to allow them to compete with the formerly established tribes. In any case, many tribal members became landless labourers in the 1960s and 1970s, and regions that a few years earlier had been the exclusive domain of tribes had an increasingly mixed population of tribals and non-tribals. Government efforts to evict nontribal members from illegal occupation have proceeded slowly; when evictions occur at all, those ejected are usually members of poor, lower castes.

Improved communications, roads with motorized traffic, and more frequent government intervention figured in the increased contact that tribal peoples had with outsiders. Commercial highways and cash crops frequently drew non-tribal people into remote areas. By the 1960s and 1970s, the resident nontribal shopkeeper was a permanent feature of many tribal villages. Since shopkeepers often sell goods on credit (demanding high interest), many tribal members have been drawn deeply into debt or mortgaged their land. Merchants also encourage tribals to grow cash crops (such as cotton or castor-oil plants), which increases tribal dependence on the market for basic necessities. Indebtedness is so extensive that although such transactions are illegal, traders sometimes 'sell' their debtors to other merchants, much likeindentured peons.

The final blow for some tribes has come when nontribals, through political jockeying, have managed to gain legal tribal status, that is, to be listed as a Scheduled Tribe.

Tribes in the Himalayan foothills have not been as hard-pressed by the intrusions of non-tribal. Historically, their political status was always distinct from the rest of India. Until the British colonial period, there was little effective control by any of the empires centered in peninsular India; the region was populated by autonomous feuding tribes. The British, in efforts to protect the sensitive northeast frontier, followed a policy dubbed the "Inner Line"; non tribal people were allowed into the areas only with special permission. Postindependence governments have continued the policy, protecting the Himalayan tribes as part of the strategy to secure the border with China.

Government policies on forest reserves have affected tribal peoples profoundly. Government efforts to reserve forests have precipitated armed (if futile) resistance on the part of the tribal peoples involved. Intensive exploitation of forests has often meant allowing outsiders to cut large areas of trees (while the original tribal inhabitants were restricted from cutting), and ultimately replacing mixed forests capable of sustaining tribal life with single-product plantations. Nontribals have frequently bribed local officials to secure effective use of reserved forest lands.

The northern tribes have thus been sheltered from the kind of exploitation that those elsewhere in South Asia have suffered. In Arunachal Pradesh (formerly part of the North-East Frontier Agency), for example, tribal members control commerce and most lower-level administrative posts. Government construction projects in the region have provided tribes with a significant source of cash. Some tribes have made rapid progress through the education system (the role of early missionaries was significant in this regard). Instruction was begun in Assamese but was eventually changed to Hindi; by the early 1980s, English was taught at most levels. Northeastern tribal people have thus enjoyed a certain measure of social mobility.

The continuing economic alienation and exploitation of many adivasis was highlighted as a "systematic failure" by the Indian Prime MinisterManmohan Singh in a 2009 conference of chief ministers of all 29 Indian states, where he also cited this as a major cause of the Naxaliteunrest that has affected areas such as the Red Corridor.^{[91][92][93][94][95]}

[edit]Participation in Indian independence movement

There were tribal reform and rebellion movements during the period of the British Empire, some of which also participated in the Indian freedom struggle or attacked mission posts.^[96] There were several Adivasis in the Indian independence movement including Khajya Naik,Bhima Naik, Jantya Bhil and Rehma Vasave.

[edit]List of rebellions against British rule

During the period of British rule, India saw the rebellions of several backward-castes, mainly tribals that revolted against British rule. These were:.^[97]

1. Halba rebellion (1774–79)
2. Chamka rebellion (1776–1787)^[98]
3. Chuar rebellion in Bengal (1795–1800)^[99]
4. Bhopalpatnam Struggle (1795)
5. Khurda Rebellion in Orissa (1817)^[100]
6. Bhil rebellion (1822–1857)^[101]
7. Paralkot rebellion (1825)
8. Tarapur rebellion (1842–54)
9. Maria rebellion (1842–63)
10. First Freedom Struggle (1856–57)
11. Bhil rebellion, begun by Tantya Tope in Banswara (1858)^[102]
12. Koi revolt (1859)
13. Gond rebellion, begun by Ramji Gond in Adilabad (1860)^[103]
14. Muria rebellion (1876)
15. Rani rebellion (1878–82)
16. Bhumkal (1910)
17. The Kuki Uprising (1917–1919)in Manipur

[edit]Some notable Scheduled Tribes

• Apatani
• Munda
• Mina
• Thakur Peoples of Maharashta
• Andamanese
• Bodos
• Bhils
• Chakma
• Chenchu
• Dhodia Tribes of Gujarat
• Gonds
• Khasis
• indigenous people of Lakshadweep
• Kurichiya
• Kurumbar
• Tripuris
• Mizos
• Malhar Koli
• Mundaris
• Nagas
• Nicobarese
• Oraon
• Santals
• Saharia
• Todas
• Maldharis of Gujarat.
• Cholanaikkan
• Kokana / Kokani
• Warli
• Katkari / Kathodi
• Kisan Tribe
• Dongria Kondh
• Bonda
• Kutia Kondh
• Bishapus A'Mishapus

[edit]Gallery

Some portraits of adivasi people.

Young Baiga women	Saharia tribe	Bhil tribe	Bhil tribe
Gondi tribe	Gondi tribe	Gondi tribe	Gondi tribe
Gondi tribe		Bhil tribe	Bhil tribe
Bhil tribe	Bhil tribe	Saharia tribe

[edit]See also

• Tribal religions in India
• List of Scheduled Tribes in India; according to the constitution
• Scheduled castes
• Caste system
• C. K. Janu
• Chakma
• Jarawa
• Shompen
• Great Andamanese
• Meenas

[edit]References

1. ^ Lok Sabha Debates ser.10 Jun 41-42 1995 v.42 no.41-42, Lok Sabha Secretariat, Parliament of India, 1995, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... Adivasis are the aborigines of India ..."
2. ^ Minocheher Rustom Masani and Ramaswamy Srinivasan (1985), Freedom and Dissent: Essays in Honour of Minoo Masani on His Eigthtieth Birthday, Democratic Research Service, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The Adivasis are the original inhabitants of India. That is what Adivasi means: the original inhabitant. They were the people who were there before the Dravidians. The tribals are the Gonds, the Bhils, the Murias, the Nagas and a hundred more. ..."
3. ^ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1968), The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi : Satyagraha in South Africa, Navajivan Publishing House, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The Adivasis are the original inhabitants ..."
4. ^ Acharya, Deepak and Shrivastava Anshu (2008): Indigenous Herbal Medicines: Tribal Formulations and Traditional Herbal Practices, Aavishkar Publishers Distributor, Jaipur- India. ISBN 978-81-7910-252-7. pp 440.
5. ^ Elst, Koenraad: (2001)
6. ^ ^a b c d Robert Harrison Barnes, Andrew Gray and Benedict Kingsbury (1995), Indigenous Peoples of Asia, Association for Asian Studies, ISBN 0924304146, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The Concept of the Adivasi: According to the political activists who coined the word in the 1930s, the "adivasis" are the original inhabitants of South Asia ..."
7. ^ Louise Waite (2006), Embodied Working Lives: Work and Life in Maharashtra, India, Lexington Books, ISBN 073910876X, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The scheduled tribes themselves tend to refer to their ethnic grouping as adivasis, which means 'original inhabitant.' Hardiman continues to argue that the term adivasi is preferable in India as it evokes a shared history of relative freedom in precolonial times ..."
8. ^ Govind Sadashiv Ghurye (1980), The Scheduled Tribes of India, Transaction Publishers, ISBN 0878556923, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... I have stated above, while ascertaining the general attitude of Mr. Jaipal Singh to tribal problems, his inisistence on the term 'Adivasi' being used for Schedule Tribes ... Sir, myself I claim to an Adivasi and an original inhabitant of the country as Mr. Jaipal Singh ... a pseudo-ethno-historical substantiation for the term 'Adivasi' ..."
9. ^ [1] Labour Bureau, Government of India (from here)
10. ^ New Book: Anthropology of Primitive Tribes in India
11. ^ Edwin Bryant and Laurie L. Patton (2005), The Indo-Aryan Controversy, Routledge, ISBN 0700714626, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... we now exist in an era where one's use of evidence is inevitably suspect of being linked to nationalist, colonialist, or cultural agendas ... No issue is more illustrative of this impasse than the debate about Aryan origins ..."
12. ^ Ludwig Gumplowicz and Irving Louis Horowitz (1980), Outlines of Sociology, Transaction Publishers, ISBN 0878556931, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The Negritos were the earliest inhabitants of India ... The Proto-Australoids who followed them had their type more or less fixed in India and therefore may be considered to be the true aborigines. Thereafter the Austro-Asiatic peoples came ... the Indo Aryans came and settled in India; so, too, did the Dravidians ... This being the state of our knowledge regarding the peopling of India, it would be hazardous to look upon one particular section of the population as the aborigines of India ..."
13. ^ Spencer Wells (2002), The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey, Princeton University Press, ISBN 069111532X, "... the population of south-east Asia prior to 6000 years ago was composed largely of groups of hunter-gatherers very similar to modern Negritos ... So, both the Y-chromosome and the mtDNA paint a clear picture of a coastal leap from Africa to south-east Asia, and onward to Australia ... DNA has given us a glimpse of the voyage, which almost certainly followed a coastal route va India ..."
14. ^ Jim Mason (2005), An Unnatural Order: The Roots of Our Destruction of Nature, Lantern Books, ISBN 1590560817, "... Australia's "aboriginal" peoples are another case in point. At the end of the Ice Age, their homeland stretched from the middle of India eastward into southeast Asia and as far south as Indonesia and nearby islands. As agriculture spread from its centers in southeast Asia, these pre-Australoid forager people moved farther southward to New Guinea and Australia. ..."
15. ^ Revathi Rajkumar et al., Phylogeny and antiquity of M macrohaplogroup inferred from complete mt DNA sequence of Indian specific lineages, BMC Evolutionary Biology 2005, 5:26 doi:10.1186/1471-2148-5-26
16. ^ ^a b K.V. Zvelebil (1982), The Irula language, O. Harrassowitz,ISBN 3447022477, "... into the low jungles of the Nilgiris (such movement might have been instigated eg by the advancing Australoids pushing out an earlier pre-Australoid ...)"
17. ^ Stephen Fuchs (1974), The Aboriginal Tribes of India, Macmillan India, ISBN 0333197828, "... Guha thinks that the Negritos were the earliest racial element in India. He believes that the Kadar, Irulas and Panyans of south India have a Negrito strain, even though he admits that they are not pure Negritos ..."
18. ^ S. Neeta and V.K. Kashyap (January 2004, Volume 49, Issue 1),Allelic variation at 15 microsatellite loci in one important Australoid and two Indocaucasoid groups of Chhattisgarh, India, Journal of Forensic Sciences, ISSN 0022-1198, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... Among the studied population groups, Oraon is a tribal group, conventionally agriculture-based, ethnically Australoid. They are confined to the small villages and do not prefer to marry outside their community maintaining the genetic make-up without any admixture. ..."
19. ^ N. Saha and H.K. Goswami (1987, Vol. 37, No. 5), Some Blood Genetic Markers in the Korkus of Central India, International Journal of Human and Medical Genetics, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... A sample of 102 individuals from the Korkus tribe, an Australoid race inhabiting Central India, was studied for the distribution of haemoglobin and ten red cell enzyme types ..."
20. ^ Tamil Literature Society (1963, Vol. 10), Tamil Culture, Academy of Tamil Culture, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... together with the evidence of archaeology would seem to suggest that the original Dravidian-speakers entered India from Iran in the fourth millennium BC ..."
21. ^ ^a b Namita Mukherjee, Almut Nebel, Ariella Oppenheim and Partha P. Majumder (December 2001, Vol. 80, No. 3), "High-resolution analysis of Y-chromosomal polymorphisms reveals signatures of population movements from central Asia and West Asia into India" (PDF), Journal of Genetics (Springer India), retrieved 2008-11-25, "... More recently, about 15,000-10,000 years before present (ybp), when agriculture developed in the Fertile Crescent region that extends from Israel through northern Syria to western Iran, there was another eastward wave of human migration (Cavalli-Sforza et al., 1994; Renfrew 1987), a part of which also appears to have entered India. This wave has been postulated to have brought the Dravidian languages into India (Renfrew 1987). Subsequently, the Indo-European (Aryan) language family was introduced into India about 4,000-3,000 ybp ..."
22. ^ Dhavendra Kumar (2004), Genetic Disorders of the Indian Subcontinent, Springer, ISBN 1402012152, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The analysis of two Y chromosome variants, Hgr9 and Hgr3 provides interesting data (Quintan-Murci et al., 2001). Microsatellite variation of Hgr9 among Iranians, Pakistanis and Indians indicate an expansion of populations to around 9000 YBP in Iran and then to 6,000 YBP in India. This migration originated in wha was historically termed Elam in south-west Iran to the Indus valley, and may have been associated with the spread of Dravidian languages from south-west Iran (Quintan-Murci et al., 2001). ..."
23. ^ Frank Raymond Allchin and George Erdosy (1995), The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521376952, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... There has also been a fairly general agreement that the Proto-Indoaryan speakers at one time lived on the steppes of Central Asia and that at a certain time they moved southwards through Bactria and Afghanistan, and perhaps the Caucasus, into Iran and India-Pakistan (Burrow 1973; Harmatta 1992) ..."
24. ^ Hermann Kulke, Dietmar Rothermund (1998), High-resolution analysis of Y-chromosomal polymorphisms reveals signatures of population movements from central Asia and West Asia into India, Routledge, ISBN 0415154820, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... During the last decades intensive archaeological research in Russia and the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union as well as in Pakistan and northern India has considerably enlarged our knowledge about the potential ancestors of the Indo-Aryans and their relationship with cultures in west, central and south Asia. Excavations in southern Russia and Central Asia convinced the international community of archaeologists that the Eurasian steppes had once been the original home of the speakers of Indo-European language ..."
25. ^ Richard Cordaux , Gunter Weiss, Nilmani Saha and Mark Stoneking (2004), "The Northeast Indian Passageway: A Barrier or Corridor for Human Migrations?", Molecular Biology and Evolution (Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution) 21 (8): 1525–33, doi:10.1093/molbev/msh151, PMID 15128876, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... Our coalescence analysis suggests that the expansion of Tibeto-Burman speakers to northeast India most likely took place within the past 4,200 years ..."
26. ^ ^a b Jim Cummins and David Corson (1999), Bilingual Education, Springer, ISBN 0792348060, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... over one million speakers each: Bhili (Indo-Aryan) 4.5 million; Santali (Austric) 4.2 m; Gondi (Dravidian) 2.0 m; and Kurukh (Dravidian) 1.3 million ..."
27. ^ ^a b R. Khongsdier, Nandita Mukherjee (2003, Vol. 122, Issue 2),"Growth and nutritional status of Khasi boys in Northeast India relating to exogamous marriages and socioeconomic classes",American Journal of Physical Anthropology 122 (2): 162–70,doi:10.1002/ajpa.10305, PMID 12949836, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The Khasis are one of the Indo-Mongoloid tribes in Northeast India. They speak the Monkhmer language, which belongs to the Austro-Asiatic group (Das, 1978) ..."
28. ^ ^a b Govinda Chandra Rath (2006), Tribal Development in India: The Contemporary Debate, SAGE, ISBN 0761934235, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The Car Nicobarese are of Mongoloid stock ... The Nicobarese speak different languages of the Nicobarese group, which belongs to an Austro-Asiatic language sub-family ..."
29. ^ ^a b Malini Srivastava (2007), "The Sacred Complex of Munda Tribe" (PDF), Anthropologist, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... Racially, they are proto-australoid and speak Mundari dialect of Austro-Asiatic ..."
30. ^ ^a b A. B. Chaudhuri (1993), State Formation Among Tribals: A Quest for Santal Identity, Gyan Publishing House,ISBN 8121204224, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The Santal is a large Proto-Australoid tribe found in West Bengal, northern Orissa, Bihar, Assam as also in Bangladesh ... The solidarity having been broken, the Santals are gradually adopting languages of the areas inhabited, like Oriya in Orissa, Hindi in Bihar and Bengali in West Bengal and Bangladesh ..."
31. ^ A. B. Chaudhuri (1949), Tribal Heritage: A Study of the Santals, Lutterworth Press, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The Santals belong to his second "main race", the Proto-Australoid, which he considers arrived in India soon after the Negritos ..."
32. ^ U. Shankarkumar (1(2): 91-94 (2003)), "A Correlative Study of HLA, Sickle Cell Gene and G6PD Deficiency with Splenomegaly and Malaria Incidence Among Bhils and Pawra Tribes from Dhadgon, Dhule, Maharastra" (PDF), Studies of Tribes and Tribals, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The Bhils are one of the largest tribes concentrated mainly in Western Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Eastern Gujarat and Northern Maharastra. Racially they were classified as Gondids, Malids or Proto-Australoid, but their social history is still a mystery (Bhatia and Rao, 1986) ..."
33. ^ ^a b Aloysius Irudayam and Jayshree P. Mangubhai, India Village Reconstruction & Development Project (2004), Adivasis Speak Out: Atrocities Against Adivasis in Tamil Nadu, Books for Change, ISBN 8187380780, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... uncivilised ... These forests and land territories assume a territorial identity precisely because they are the extension of the Adivasis' collective personality ..."
34. ^ C.R. Bijoy, Core Committee of the All India Coordinating Forum of Adivasis/Indigenous Peoples (February 2003), "The Adivasis of India - A History of Discrimination, Conflict, and Resistance",PUCL Bulletin (People's Union for Civil Liberties, India), retrieved 2008-11-25, "... Adivasis are not, as a general rule, regarded as unclean by caste Hindus in the same way as Dalits are. But they continue to face prejudice (as lesser humans), they are socially distanced and often face violence from society ..."
35. ^ ^a b Thakorlal Bharabhai Naik (1956), The Bhils: A Study, Bharatiya Adimjati Sevak Sangh, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... Valmiki, from whose pen this great epic had its birth, was himself a Bhil named Valia, according to the traditional accounts of his life ..."
36. ^ Edward Balfour (1885), The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia, Bernard Quaritch, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... In Mewar, the Grasia is of mixed Bhil and Rajput descent, paying tribute to the Rana of Udaipur ..."
37. ^ R.K. Sinha (1995), The Bhilala of Malwa, Anthropological survey of India, ISBN 9788185579085, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... the Bhilala are commonly considered to be a mixed group who sprung from the marriage alliances of the immigrant male Rajputs and the Bhil women of the central India ..."
38. ^ ^a b R. Singh (2000), Tribal Beliefs, Practices and Insurrections, Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd., ISBN 8126105046, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... The Munda Parha was known as 'Manki', while his Oraon counterpart was called 'Parha Raja.' The lands these adivasis occupied were regarded to be the village's patrimony ... The Gond rajas of Chanda and Garha Mandla were not only the hereditary leaders of their Gond subjects, but also held sway over substantial communities of non-tribals who recognized them as their feudal lords ..."
39. ^ Milind Gunaji (2005), Offbeat Tracks in Maharashtra: A Travel Guide, Popular Prakashan, ISBN 8171546692, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... The Navegaon is one of the forests in Maharashtra where the natives of this land still live and earn their livelihood by carrying out age old activities like hunting, gathering forest produce and ancient methods of farming. Beyond the Kamkazari lake is the Dhaavalghat, which is home to adivasis. They also have a temple here, the shrine of Lord Waghdev ..."
40. ^ Surajit Sinha, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences (1987),Tribal polities and state systems in pre-colonial eastern and north eastern India, K.P. Bagchi & Co., ISBN 8170740142, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... The way in which and the extent to which tribal support had been crucial in establishing a royal dynasty have been made quite clear ... tribal loyalty, help and support were essential in establishing a ruling family ..."
41. ^ Hugh Chisholm (1910), The Encyclopedia Britannica, The Encyclopedia Britannica Co., retrieved 2008-11-26, "... The 16th century saw the establishment of a powerful Gond kingdom by Sangram Sah, who succeeded in 1480 as the 47th of the petty Gond rajas of Garha-Mandla, and extended his dominions to include Saugor and Damoh on the Vindhyan plateau, Jubbulpore and Narsinghpur in the Nerbudda valley, and Seoni on the Satpura highlands ..."
42. ^ ^a b Piya Chatterjee (2001), A Time for Tea: Women, Labor, and Post/colonial Politics on an Indian Plantation, Duke University Press, ISBN 0822326744, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... Among the Munda, customary forms of land tenure known as khuntkatti stipulated that land belonged communally to the village, and customary rights of cultivation, branched from corporate ownership. Because of Mughal incursions, non-Jharkhandis began to dominate the agrarian landscape, and the finely wrought system of customary sharing of labor, produce and occupancy began to crumble. The process of dispossession and land alienation, in motion since the mid-eighteenth century, was given impetus by British policies that established both zamindari and ryotwari systems of land revenue administration. Colonial efforts toward efficient revenue collection hinged on determining legally who had proprietal rights to the land ..."
43. ^ ^a b Ulrich van der Heyden and Holger Stoecker (2005), Mission und macht im Wandel politischer Orientierungen: Europäische Missionsgesellschaften in politischen Spannungsfeldern in Afrika und Asien zwischen 1800 und 1945, Franz Steiner Verlag,ISBN 3515084231, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... The permanent settlement Act had an adverse effect upon the fate of the Adivasis for, 'the land which the aboriginals had rested from the jungle and cultivated as free men from generation was, by a stroke of pen, declared to be the property of the Raja (king) and the Jagirdars.' The alien became the Zamindars (Landlords) while the sons of the soil got reduced to mere tenants. Now, it was the turn of the Jagirdars-turned-Zamindars who further started leasing out land to the new comers, who again started encroaching Adivasi land. The land grabbing thus went on unabated. By the year 1832 about 6,411 Adivasi villages were alienated in this process ..."
44. ^ O.P. Ralhan (2002), Encyclopaedia of Political Parties, Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd., ISBN 8174888659, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... The Permanent Settlement was 'nothing short of the confiscation of raiyat lands in favor of the zamindars.' ... Marx says '... in Bengal as in Madras and Bombay, under the zamindari as under the ryotwari, the raiyats who form 11/12ths of the whole Indian population have been wretchedly pauperised.' To this may be added the inroads made by the Company's Government upon the village community of the tribals (the Santhals, Kols, Khasias etc.) ... There was a wholesale destruction of 'the national tradition.' Marx observes: 'England has broken down the entire framework of Indian society ..."
45. ^ Govind Kelkar and Dev Nathan (1991), Gender and Tribe: Women, Land and Forests in Jharkhand, Kali for Women,ISBN 1856490351, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... of the features of the adivasi land systems. These laws also showed that British colonial rule had passed on to a new stage of exploitation ... Forests were the property of the zamindar or the state ..."
46. ^ ^a b William Wilson Hunter, Hermann Michael Kisch, Andrew Wallace Mackie, Charles James O'Donnell and Herbert Hope Risley (1877), A Statistical Account of Bengal, Trübner, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... The Kol insurrection of 1831, though, no doubt, only the bursting forth of a fire that had long been smouldering, was fanned into flame by the following episode:- The brother of the Maharaja, who was holder of one of the maintenance grants which comprised Sonpur, a pargana in the southern portion of the estate, gave farms of some of the villages over the heads of the Mankis and Mundas, to certain Muhammadans, Sikhs and others, who has obtained his favour ... not only was the Manki dispossessed, but two of his sisters were seduced or ravished by these hated foreigners ... one of them ..., it was said, had abducted and dishonoured the Munda's wife ..."
47. ^ Radhakanta Barik (2006), Land and Caste Politics in Bihar, Shipra Publications, ISBN 8175413050, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... As usually the zamindars were the moneylenders, they could pressurize the tenants to concede to high rent ..."
48. ^ Shashank Shekhar Sinha (2005), Restless Mothers and Turbulent Daughters: Situating Tribes in Gender Studies, Stree,ISBN 8185604738, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... In addition, many tribals were forced to pay private taxes ... ..."
49. ^ ^a b Economic and Political Weekly, Sameeksha Trust, 1974, V.9, No.6-8, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... The Adivasis spend their life-times working for the landlord-moneylenders and, in some cases, even their children are forced to work for considerable parts of their lives to pay off debts ..."
50. ^ Sita Venkateswar (2004), Development and Ethnocide: Colonial Practices in the Andaman Islands, IWGIA, ISBN 8791563046, "... As I have suggested previously, it is probable that some disease was introduced among the coastal groups by Lieutenant Colebrooke and Blair's first settlement in 1789, resulting in a marked reduction of their population. The four years that the British occupied their initial site on the south-east of South Andaman were sufficient to have decimated the coastal populations of the groups referred to as Jarawa by the Aka-bea-da ..."
51. ^ Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Francesco Cavalli-Sforza (1995), The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution, Basic Books, ISBN 0201442310, "... Contact with whites, and the British in particular, has virtually destroyed them. Illness, alcohol, and the will of the colonials all played their part; the British governor of the time mentions in his diary that he received instructions to destroy them with alcohol and opium. He succeeded completely with one group. The others reacted violently ..."
52. ^ Paramjit S. Judge (1992), Insurrection to Agitation: The Naxalite Movement in Punjab, Popular Prakashan, ISBN 8171545270, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... The Santhal insurrection in 1855-56 was a consequence of the establishment of the permanent Zamindari Settlement introduced by the British in 1793 as a result of which the Santhals had been dispossesed of the land that they had been cultivating for centuries. Zamindars, moneylenders, traders and government officials exploited them ruthlessly. The consequence was a violent revolt by the Santhals which could only be suppressed by the army ..."
53. ^ The Indian Journal of Social Work, Department of Publications, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, 1956, v.59, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... Revolts rose with unfailing regularity and were suppressed with treachery, brute force, tact, cooption and some reforms ..."
54. ^ Roy Moxham (2003), Tea, Carroll & Graf Publishers,ISBN 0786712279, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... many of the labourers came from Chota Nagpur District ... home to the Adivasis, the most popular workers with the planters - the '1st class jungley.' As one of the planters, David Crole, observed: 'planters, in a rough and ready way, judge the worth of a coolie by the darkness of the skin.' In the last two decades of the nineteenth century 350,000 coolies went from Chota Nagpur to Assam ..."
55. ^ James Minahan and Leonard W. Doob (1996), Nations Without States: A Historical Dictionary of Contemporary National Movements, Greenwood Press, ISBN 0313283540, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The Adivasi tribes encompass the pre-Dravidian holdovers from ancient India ..."
56. ^ Sarina Singh, Joe Bindloss, Paul Clammer and Janine Eberle (2005), India, Lonely Planet, ISBN 1740596943, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... Although the northeast states make up just 7.5% of the geographical area of India, the region is home to 20% of India's Adivasis (tribal people). The following are the main tribes ... Nagas ... Monpas ... Apatani & Adi ... Khasi ..."
57. ^ ^a b Moirangthem Kirti Singh (1988), Religion and Culture of Manipur, Manas Publications, ISBN 8170490219, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... The Meiteis began to think that root cause of their present unrest was their contact with the Mayangs, the outsider from the rest of India in matters of trade, commerce, religious belief and the designation of the Meiteis as caste Hindus in the Constitution of India. The policy of reservations for the scheduled castes and tribes in key posts began to play havoc ..."
58. ^ Man, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1972, v.7, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... Nor, for that matter, does a traits approach to drawing distinctions between tribe and caste lead to any meaningful interpretation of social or civilizational processes. Social boundaries must be defined in each case (community or regional society) with reference to the modes of social classification, on the one hand, and processes of social interaction, on the other. It is in their inability to relate these two aspects of the social phenomenon through a model of social reality that most behavioural exercises come to grief ..."
59. ^ Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (1959), Lōkayata: A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism, People's Publishing House, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... Even the authors of our traditional law-codes and other works did not know whether to call a particular group of backward people a caste or a tribe ..."
60. ^ Robert Goldmann and A. Jeyaratnam Wilson (1984), From Independence to Statehood: Managing Ethnic Conflict in Five African and Asian States, Pinter, ISBN 0861873548, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... Because the question of what groups are to be given preferences is constitutionally and politically open, the demand for preferences becomes a device for political mobilisation. Politicians can mobilise members of their caste, religious or linguistic community around the demand for inclusion on the list of those to be given preferences ... As preferences were extended to backward castes, and as more benefits were given to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the 'forward' castes have ..."
61. ^ ^a b Col. Ved Prakash (2006), Encyclopaedia of North-east India, Vol# 2, Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, ISBN 8126907045, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... An angry mob of Koch-Rajbongshis (KRs) ransacked 4-8-03 the BJP office, Guwahati, demanding ST status for the KRs ... the KRs have been demanding the ST status for long, and the Bodos are stoutly opposed to it ..."
62. ^ "Gujjars enforce blockade; Delhi tense", The Times of India, 2008-05-29, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... Gujjars on Thursday blocked road and rail traffic in the capital and adjoining areas as part of their 'NCR rasta roko' agitation ... The NCR agitation, called by All India Gujjar Mahasabha, is in support of the community's demand for Scheduled Tribe status in Rajasthan ..."
63. ^ "What the Meena-Gujjar conflict is about", Rediff, 2007-06-01, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... Rajasthan is sitting on a potential caste war between the Gujjars and Meenas with the former demanding their entry into the Schedule Tribes list while the Meenas are looking to keep their turf intact by resisting any tampering with the ST quota ..."
64. ^ Mamta Rajawat (2003), Scheduled Castes in India: a Comprehensive Study, Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd.,ISBN 8126113391, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... endogamy is basic to the morphology of caste but for its origin and sustenance one has to see beyond ... D.D. Kosambi says that the fusion of tribal elements into society at large lies at the foundation of the caste system; Irfan Habib concurs, suggesting that when tribal people were absorbed they brought with them their endogamous customs ..."
65. ^ ^a b Mohammad Abbas Khan (2005), Social Development in Twenty First Century, Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd.,ISBN 8126121300, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... in North India, high caste Hindus regard the village as an exogamous unit. Girls born within the village are called 'village daughters' and they do not cover their faces before local men, whereas girls who come into the village by marriage do so ... With Christians and Muslims, the elementary or nuclear family is the exogamous unit. Outside of it marriages are possible ... Lineage exogamy also exists among the Muslim Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir ..."
66. ^ Richard V. Weekes (1984), Muslim Peoples: A World Ethnographic Survey, Greenwood Press, ISBN 0313246408, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... The preference for in-marriage produces the reticulated kinship system characteristic of Punjabi Muslim society, as opposed to Hindu lineage exogamy and preference for marriage outside one's natal village ..."
67. ^ Lalita Prasad Vidyarthi (2004), South Asian Culture: An Anthropological Perspective, Oriental Publishers & Distributors, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... The tribal communities, by and large, also practise clan exogamy, which means marrying outside the totemic division of a tribe ..."
68. ^ Georg Pfeffer (1982), Status and Affinity in Middle India, F. Steiner, ISBN 3515039139, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... Elwin documents the strict observance of this rule: Out of 300 marriages recorded, not a single one broke the rule of village exogamy ..."
69. ^ Rajendra K. Sharma (2004), Indian Society, Institutions and Change: Institutions and Change, Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, ISBN 8171566650, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... Among many Indian tribes it is the recognized custom to marry outside the village. This restriction is prevalent in the Munda and other tribes of Chhota Nagpur of Madhya Pradesh ... the Naga tribe of Assam is divided into Khels. Khel is the name given to the residents of the particular place, and people of one Khel cannot marry each other ..."
70. ^ John Vincent Ferreira (1965), Totemism in India, Oxford University Press, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... there is every reason to believe that the inspiration leading to the formation of exogamous gotras came from the aborigines ..."
71. ^ Monika Böck and Aparna Rao (2000), Culture, Creation, and Procreation: Concepts of Kinship in South Asian Practice, Berghahn Books, ISBN 1571819126, retrieved 2008-11-26, "... Kalasha kinship is indeed orchestrated through a rigorous system of patrilineal descent defined by lineage exogamy ... Lineage exogamy thus distinguishes Kalasha descent groups as discretely bounded corporations, in contrast to the nonexogamous 'sliding lineages' (Bacon 1956) of surrounding Muslims ..."
72. ^ Thomas R. Trautmann (1997), Aryans and British India, University of California Press, ISBN 0520205464, retrieved 2008-11-26, "...The radiating, segmentary character of the underlying genealogical figure requires that the specifications be unilineal ... we have in the Dharmasastra doctrine of jatis a theory of ethnogenesis through intermixture or marriage of persons of different varnas, and secondary and tertiary intermixtures of the original ones, leading to a multitude of units, rather than the radiating segmentary structure of ethnogenesis by fission or descent ..."
73. ^ Todd Scudiere (1997), Aspects of Death and Bereavement Among Indian Hindus and American Christians: A Survey and Cross-cultural Comparison, University of Wisconsin - Madison, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... the Vedic Aryan was not particularly eager to enter heaven, he was too much this-worldly oriented. A notion of reincarnation was not introduced until later. However, there was a concept of a universal force - an idea of an underlying monistic reality that was later called Brahman ..."
74. ^ ^a b S.G. Sardesai (1986), Progress and Conservatism in Ancient India, People's Publishing House, retrieved 2008-11-25, "... The centre of Rig Vedic religion was the Yajna, the sacrificial fire. ... There is no Atma, no Brahma, no Moksha, no idol worship in the Rig Veda ..."
75. ^ Hajime Nakamura and Ronald Burr (1975), Parallel Developments: A Comparative History of Ideas, Kodansha,ISBN 9780870112720, retrieved 2008-12-12, "... even in the prehistoric period when the Indo-Aryans and the Persians formed a single people, they performed sacrifices (Vedic yajna: Avestan yasna), and that they already had a sacred drink (Vedic soma: Avestan haoma) ..."
76. ^ ^a b Shiv Kumar Tiwari (2002), Tribal Roots of Hinduism, Sarup & Sons, ISBN 8176252999, retrieved 2008-12-12
77. ^ Kumar Suresh Singh (1985), Tribal Society in India: An Anthropo-historical Perspective, Manohar, retrieved 2008-12-12, "... Shiva was a "tribal deity" to begin with and forest-dwelling communities, including those who have ceased to be tribals and those who are tribals today ..."
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79. ^ Shaap to Baali, archived from the original on 2009-10-24
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81. ^ M.S. Golwalkar: Bunch of Thoughts, p.479.
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83. ^ Mahabharata (I.31-54) (II.37.47; II.44.21) Elst 2001
84. ^ Kautilya: The Arthashastra 9:2:13-20, Penguin edition, p. 685. Elst 2001
85. ^ Troisi, J: Tribal Religion, page 258. Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 2000.
86. ^ Orans, M: "The Santal A Tribe in Search of a Great Tradition", page 106. Wayne State University Press, 1965.
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97. ^ "Tribal Protests and Rebellions'
98. ^ Page 63 Tagore Without Illusions by Hitendra Mitra
99. ^ Sameeksha Trust, P. 1229 Economic and Political Weekly
100. ^ P. 4 "Freedom Movement in Khurda" Dr. Atul Chandra Pradhan
101. ^ P. 111 The Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad: A Connected Account By Hyderabad (India : State)
102. ^ P. 32 Social and Political Awakening Among the Tribals of Rajasthan By Gopi Nath Sharma
103. ^ P. 420 Who's who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh By Sarojini Regani

[edit]Further reading

• The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, by R.V. Russell, 1916 (E book)
• Elst, Koenraad. Who is a Hindu? (2001) ISBN 81-85990-74-3
• Raj, Aditya & Papia Raj (2004) "Linguistic Deculturation and the Importance of Popular Education among the Gonds in India" Adult Education and Development 62: 55-61
• Vindicated by Time: The Niyogi Committee Report (edited by S.R. Goel, 1998) (1955)
• Tribal Heritage of India, by Shyama Charan Dube, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Indian Council of Social Science Research, Anthropological Survey of India. Published by Vikas Pub. House, 1977. ISBN 0-7069-0531-8.
• Tribal Movements in India, by Kumar Suresh Singh. Published by Manohar, 1982.
• Tribal Society in India: An Anthropo-historical Perspective, by Kumar Suresh Singh. Published by Manohar, 1985.

[edit]External links

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• CEPCE India
• Saint Namdeo Maharaj
• Adivasi Coordination Group in Germany (engl. website)
• Adivasi Picture Collection at Kamat.com
• People's Tribunal demands a sustainable model for tribes, Tej Prakash, OneWorld South Asia

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