Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 15.08.13
'We don't want money, we need land'- The Hindu
Vanniyar Ramadoss Vs Dalit Thirumavalavan – a divided Tamil Nadu?- Truth Dive
http://truthdive.com/2013/08/15/vanniyar-ramadoss-vs-dalit-thirumavalavan-a-divided-tamil-nadu.html
Dalits enter temple- The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/dalits-enter-temple/article5024741.ece
Hassan: Indefinite Sit-in Called off on DCs Assurances to Award Compensation- Bellevision
http://www.bellevision.com/belle/index.php?action=news_diggest&type=2951
POLITICAL ANIMALS: Caste effective- Live Mint
http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/J1pWq1hytCCwei9mQw60hM/POLITICAL-ANIMALS-Caste-effective.html
'Rayalandhra' with Ongole as capital mooted- The Hindu
Independent Expressions: Artistes share their views on freedom of speech and expression- The Indian Express
NOTE : Please see attachment for HINDI DMW (PDF)
The Hindu
'We don't want money, we need land'
Ninety-one families of Dalits from Gangooru village in Arakalgudu taluk, who were freed from bonded labour in 1994, have been waiting for compensation from the government. For the last nineteen years, they have received hundreds of assurances from elected representatives and administration, but none has kept to it.
These families were working for landlords for years to clear dues borrowed for various purposes. Many had worked for over 25 to 30 years only to clear their loans.
They were freed by the district administration in 1994, after the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti activists brought this issue to the fore.
Puttaswamy, now 35, recalls how he and his younger sister worked as bonded labourers with a landlord to clear dues of Rs. 100 and Rs. 50 per year, respectively. Then, the labour of a child was Rs. 50 to Rs. 150 for one year.
Soon after they were freed, Mahendra Jain, then Deputy Commissioner of Hassan, assured them land as compensation. Each family was provided with a cow and a buffalo, which was in no way sufficient to feed the families.
Pitfalls
Worse, they had to take cattle to nearby forest areas for grazing, attracting the wrath of Forest Department officials. On the other hand, the landlords refused to offer them work in their fields as they were unhappy with the row over the bonded labour system.
"They did not call us for work for three to four years. Though they started offering us work later, it was not on a regular basis. Now, most of us go to far-flung places for work," said Kanaiah, who was once a bonded labourer. In recent years, a couple of families have managed to take up tenant farming. They till others' land and pay annual rent to the owners.
"We don't want money, we need land," said Kanaiah. By and large this is the demand of all families. On two occasions, the district administration had identified land for allotment to these families, but the process stopped there.
The previous Deputy Commissioner K.P. Mohan Raj, who was recently transferred to Koppal, had assured the families suitable land. Land in Sakleshpur taluk was identified for the purpose, but eve this has not materialised following litigation.
"The court has asked us to maintain status quo," said an official. The hope of land remains a distant dream for the residents of Gangooru.
Truth Dive
Vanniyar Ramadoss Vs Dalit Thirumavalavan – a divided Tamil Nadu?
http://truthdive.com/2013/08/15/vanniyar-ramadoss-vs-dalit-thirumavalavan-a-divided-tamil-nadu.html
(A discussion on recent Vanniyar Dalit clashes in Tamil Nadu, political ambitions of Ramadoss and Thirumavalavan and creation of new states)
Pandyan asks :
Can we analyse Vanniyar – Dalit clashes in Tamil Nadu from a Social and Political perspective?
P.T.Rama writes:
Vanniyar-Dalit clashes are not new.
The present situation arises since PMK oppose love marriages. The inter-caste love marriages shall increase in all the communities irrespective of one opposes it or not. The economic progress, urbanisation and media reach including internet shall encourage love marriages.
Both PMK and VCK are considered community organisations with political agenda. They are of the types that they acknowledge existence of caste, try to preserve the culture unique to their communities and also try to unite the communities through mutual cooperation in all the issues. They do not pretend like BJP that favours only a particular community under a philosophical cover of unity of all communities.
Both PMK and VCK are the results of failure of Dravidian parties inadequately addressing their problems since 1968. Similar outfits are also evolving under the leadership of Krishnaswamy and Sarath Kumar for two other communities. This shows these communities were not given their pie in the progress of the state and in the corruption money. I mean, leaders for these communities were not allowed to get benefits of a ruling party in both DMK and AIADMK.
Those who are unwilling to share the political power with these communities are inducing these parties to fight against each other. I mean both the Dravidian and non-Dravidian status quoists are behind these clashes.
Caste clashes are engineered by invisible forces. It is not a real clash among the oppressed communities. People in the upper end of social ladder will not easily allow the rest to go up. There is a ladder. Someone should be above and someone should be below economically too. Here, social and economic status are attached together.
Only a political alliance of all communities shall resolve the issue. Kerala is an example of such a coalition. Even UP or India is preparing for such experiments.
Pandian writes:
The love marriage of a Vanniyar girl and a Dalit boy was the crux of the issue. Rather than this being settled as a family issue, it spiralled into a caste clash. Did VCK play a role in this? PMK to my opinion took a stand to promote itself by protecting the "sentiments" of Vanniyars rather than resolving the issue amicably. What about Vanniyar boys marrying Dalit girls – why is that not an issue?
The end result is however to the detrimental to the Tamil cause. Eelam is a dead topic now. To my knowledge ADMK and DMK – both provide shelter to few castes – Thevar, Vanniyar, Nadar, Dalit etc…and hence these castes tolerate them. Politicians are hungry for issues that help them get some leads. I guess both PMK and VCK scored several points over this issue among their respective tribes. I had respect for both these parties and believed that they will one day come together. The ground reality in Tamil Nadu looks like will never let this happen.
I do think that the fundamental reason for people's protectionist attitude is "fear" – indicative of a lack of good governance. Each of these groups fear that they will be run over by other groups. The smart(er) communities rely on education and/or wealth (Brahmins and Naidus for example). They have produced good academicians and businessmen. Others who are chasing political power are the ones that have not progressed much.
The situation in Tamil Nadu is counterproductive for any Tamil origin leader to come to power – because the other Tamil communities would not like that to happen. This is the reason why we have Telugu origin MK and Brahmin origin JJ (both belonging to minority communities) to easily lead.
There has to be a diversion for people to forget caste alignments and get into the new world order.
Prakash queries P.T.Rama :
Are you suggesting that DMK & ADMK provide adequate representation ?
P.T.Rama answers Prakash:
Adequate representation means offer of plum posts in both the party and Governance. I fear both DMK and AIADMK failed to balance the caste equations. People with independent thoughts shall never be groomed in a dynastic and leader-centric political parties.
The smaller caste outfits can be killed by alliances. Use and throw. That happened to PMK. They are now irritated and go for even more aggressive topics. They can attack only those who are defenseless, dalits who are living closer to them by habitat. What would have happened to a Vanniyar girl-Brahmin boy love marriage?
What is more important is participation of all the communities in the governance so that all the voices are respected. Dominance of any community shall create problems.
P.T.Rama answers Pandyan :
Your perspective with Tamil unity is good. But ..
From the Sangam age, Tamils are not united. Even now there are demands to trifurcate Tamil Nadu. This is caste-based. Vanniyar Land, Goundar Land and Devar Land.
Telengana is facilitating Reddys. Telugus who got a land for Telugu-speaking people are now divided. Similar fate awaits Tamil Nadu. You are in Utopian dreams of Tamil unity. We failed. Eelam Tamils too failed since anti-Tamils used the caste divide among Eelam Tamils to divide LTTE. Karuna of Sri Lanka turned a betrayer.
The root cause of all our problems is caste. Annihilation of caste propagated by Ambedkar is also one utopian idea. Acceptance of castes by Gandhi worked out well because it suited dominant castes.
We are following Gandhi under the cover of removal of untouchability and non-violence. But, the hidden agenda is imposition of caste system. Ambedkar was fighting it by his intelligence without violence. Maoists counter it by violence. Parties like PMK and VCK do it by following milder violence and political trials.
Give PMK their due share in political power and tie them up with VCK political power by their alliance. They can be united by a Tamil cause. This too is hypothetical only. What will happen in reality? This will be continuously scuttled by others. That is how communities with smaller numbers can get greater political gains to support their own communities. Democracy can be cheated.
The Hindu
Dalits enter temple
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/dalits-enter-temple/article5024741.ece
Dalits of Oduvankurichi – about 7 km. from Rasipuram Town, in Namakkal District – entered a temple attached to the Hindu Religious and Charities Endowment (HR&CE) Department amidst tight police security on Tuesday morning.
Protesting against the entry of Dalits into the temple, Caste Hindus of that village did not come to the temple on that day. Revenue officials sealed the temple during the wee hours of Friday after a group of Caste Hindus staged a dharna inside the temple on Thursday protesting against the move of authorities to allow Dalits into the Kashiviswanathar Temple. While three rounds of peace talks conducted by the revenue officials on August 6, 8 and 10 met with a failure, the seal was removed on Tuesday morning.
Puja performed
Rasipuram Tahsildar K. Ayyavu opened the seal following which a group of 11 Dalits entered the temple. Puja were performed for them. District Collector V. Dakshinamoorthi and other officials also visited the spot.
Bellevision
Hassan: Indefinite Sit-in Called off on DCs Assurances to Award Compensation
http://www.bellevision.com/belle/index.php?action=news_diggest&type=2951
Hassan, 15 Aug 2013: The protesters called off the indefinite sit-in that was led by Madiga Dandora in front of the office of Deputy Commissioner (DC) here on Tuesday August 12, seeking compensation to the family of Dalit woman Sannamma who was mauled by a leopard a few months ago.
Addressing the protesters, Madiga Dandora said that the higher police officers and forest officials visited the spot, where Dalit woman Sannamma was mauled by a leopard in her native Hardanahalli, at the limits of Halekote in Holenarasipura, 2 months ago. Despite their visit, and autopsy to prove Sannamma died because of leopard attack, the grieving family is running pillar to post in the forest department seeking compensation.
Meanwhile, the indefinite sit-in was called off on the assurances of DC instructing forest department to issue compensation cheque at the earliest.
Live Mint
POLITICAL ANIMALS: Caste effective
http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/J1pWq1hytCCwei9mQw60hM/POLITICAL-ANIMALS-Caste-effective.html
Finally, a Dalit film that portrays a convincing Dalit experience. It is yet to get the censor's clearance though Does anyone who watches Bollywood movies remember Deepak Kumar, Jaishankar Paswan andPannalal Chauhar?
Deepak is Saif Ali Khan, a suave Cornell University graduate in Prakash Jha's Aarakshan a film on caste reservations. In Jha's strident, jingoistic style, sadly now his trademark, Deepak rises above his unprivileged circumstances. Jaishankar is Kamal Haasan's Chachi 420 in the eponymous movie, in love with Janki, the daughter of Durgaprasad Bhardwaj, in this rambunctious comedy of disguise. Pannalal is an audacious police office in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Eklavya who takes on an establishment that derives its power from caste politics.
All three are lower caste or Dalit men in fairly important roles in a Hindi film.
A still from 'Papilio Buddha'
All of them are success stories in the conventional sense—Deepak and Pannalal are in some ways, and they speak or act against oppression. Jaishankar carouses his way through the film, hoodwinking his former Brahmin wife dressed as a woman. These characters are far from the reality, of course—far from the politicized and historically disadvantaged experience of the majority of lower caste men and women in India. With some glowing exceptions in the 1950s and 1960s (Acchut Kanya, Punarmilan, Sujata, among others) and later in the 1970s and 1980s in 'parallel' films like Jha's Damul (1985) and Goutam Ghose's Paar, the low caste person is the disadvantaged, seen with a socialist zeal to highlight his struggles against the affluent and privileged. A hero, forget a heroine, whose identity is defined by his or her being a Dalit is a rarity in our movies, which is why Jayan Cherian's Papilio Buddha, a film made in 2012 and yet to receive the censor board's green light to screen in India, which premieres at the Montreal World Film Festival beginning tomorrow, is a milestone.
Deepti Naval in Prakash Jha's 'Damul'
For the Malayali director who lives in New York, this is a much-awaited reprieve. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFS) last sent him a notice in August 2012 explaining why the board can't issue a certificate to release the film in India. Their reasons, in a nutshell, are: The film depicts Mahatma Gandhi in a negative light; displaced Dalits burn Gandhi's effigy. And the film has some scenes of explicit violence that policemen inflict on a Dalit woman.
Cherian has refused to delete those scenes because, as he says, "I am just a film-maker, not a politician. I don't think it is my concern or obligation to balance political opinions expressed by fictional characters in the film."
Papilio Buddha is unapologetic in its political point of view. It is a comment of the failure of communism, on the incongruity between organized resistance movements and a globalized culture, and on how caste politics and atrocities on low castes displace and brutalize people. It is set in the Western Ghats. Shankaran, a disillusioned, educated young man works for an American lepidopterist who illegally collects butterflies in the Western Ghats. Papilio Buddha is the name of a rare butterfly once spotted by a Japanese lepidopterist, and in the film is used as a metaphor for the displaced Dalit. Shankaran's story is weaved around a group of displaced 'untouchables' in the Western Ghats who embrace Buddhism and become Ambedkar's followers in order to escape from oppression. In Shankaran, we finally have a Dalit hero who is acutely ware of his historical burden and it shapes who he is—not a black and white character who is either a victim or a dramatic success. In the female lead Saritha Sunil is powerful. Her performance brings out the suffering, wisdom and power of a Dalit woman.
A still from 'Papilio Buddha'
Beautifully shot by MJ Radhakrsihnan, Cherian's film in Malayalam is peppered with native songs, songs of protest, children's songs and a haunting background score bySunilkumar PK.
Undoubtedly one of the boldest films to have come out in an Indian language, Papilio Buddha deserves all the praise around the world.
Click here for details on its screenings.
The Hindu
'Rayalandhra' with Ongole as capital mooted
Outfits representing SCs, STs, BCs and minorities on Wednesday demanded formation of 'Rayalandhra' State with Ongole as its capital for socio-economic and political justice for the downtrodden sections of people.
At a meeting organised by the Samajika Kala Samiti, the speakers dubbed the ongoing stir for Samaikyandhra as promoted by capitalists from the Andhra region to continue their political hegemony.
Kapu Nadu State president Pilla Venkateswara Rao maintained that the two politically powerful communities which had led the 'Jai Andhra' movement in the past were leading the present agitation for Samaikyandhra. The Kapus and Bahujans should unite to achieve political power for themselves, he said.
Dalit Hakkula Parirakshana Samiti District President Neelam Nagendra Rao said Dalit icon B.R.Ambedkar had strongly advocated smaller States for socio-economic and political justice for the weaker sections of people.
Bahujana Keratala Editor Palanati Sriramulu said "Ongole is equidistant from all corners of Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra.
Most of this region had been ruled by Vijayanagara emperor Srikrishnadevaraya."
The Indian Express
Independent Expressions: Artistes share their views on freedom of speech and expression
Rushil Dutta : Pune, Thu Aug 15 2013, 10:47 hrs
One may assume that a democracy, with its provisions for freedom of speech and expression, is most conducive to artistic contemplation. In that context, artistes in the city place concept of the freedom of speech and expression under the microscope of their respective trades, and explore the veracity of such assumptions.
Namdeo Dhasal is a veteran poet who is at the forefront of modern Indian poetry and has written voraciously on the Dalit issue. Inspired by Black Panthers in the US, a Black liberation group, Dhasal had started the Dalit Panthers, which had gained notoriety for its radical activism, but dissipated over a decade later.
"My first collection of poetry, Golpitha, had created an uproar. The police had taken action against us. I was just resonating the thoughts of the oppressed, us 'untouchables', who have been trampled over the ages in the name of religion and caste," says Dhasal, adding, "We were just criticising the system, because 'untouchables' were being killed. We were only fighting for our fundamental right to live."
"There are 800 castes and 6,000 sub-castes in this country. As a nation, we have been through a lot. One's views should not result in conflagration between communities. I wouldn't want unrestrained freedom, which might annihilate our democracy and drive us to anarchy," says Dhasal.
Mohammed Munim, vocalist and songwriter of city-based band Highway 61 has seen his share of anarchy while growing up in Kashmir. "The problem there is different. It exists because people do not want to accept that there is a problem," says Munim, adding, "As a band, we did not want to make music for the sake of entertainment. The words had to echo the thoughts of the multitude."
Munim has written a song called Kashmir, which he was initially apprehensive about but went ahead with on receiving support from his bandmates. "The song tries to capture the essence of the upheaval. It has been produced as a kit, with sound clips of women wailing, emphasising loss of loved ones," says Munim.
He laments that three out of five citizens in Kashmir are victims in some way or the other. "This song tries to capture the pain of victimisation. It is about people like a vegetable vendor who does not care about politics or nations but wants to earn a living for his family yet ends up getting shot in a crossfire," he says.
Munim has faced minor incidents of discrimination but is overwhelmed by the love and creative expression his music has enabled. "I found it a lot easier to portray my thoughts on Kashmir outside Kashmir. On a scale of one to 10, I give our country a nine for freedom of expression and speech," he says.
Experimental actor Sarang Sathaye's expression has been compromised in an odd way. He echoes the dissatisfaction of indie filmmakers of India. His movie with director Mohit Takalkar, The Bright Day, despite making waves in the most prestigious film festivals abroad, never saw the light of the day in India.
His expression as an actor and storyteller has been affected thus. Sathaye says, "The censor board has odd rules. My movie has a 14-second kissing scene and it got an A certification. But Bollywood movies have kissing scenes often and get a U/A certificate because these rules can be manipulated. In this case, it can be manipulated by following the board's dictum of taking cuts during kissing scenes. But a director may or may not want to take cuts. In our case, we didn't. But we cannot complain. We must be louder to be heard."
News Monitor by Girish Pant
--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.
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