Fact Finding Report of Andhra Pradesh Dalit Mahasabha on the Lakshimpeta Massacre

Three women whose husbands were alive on June 11th became widows on the 12th. One lost a father, and another woman also lost a husband a few days later. 20 victims suffer and grieve in a hospital, nursing seriously injured limbs and heads, fighting for their lives. This is the scenario I witnessed with my own eyes in Lakshimpeta, on July 3rd.

They still do not understand why the Toorpu Kapus had launched such a brutal attack on them, armed with spears, axes, bill hooks and bombs, wounded and killed so many when the day had not fully dawned and most of the villagers had not woken up. Nor do they understand why the fact that tilling the 45 cents of land legally allotted to each of them by the Collector should have caused so much caste hatred.

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Stalin K

Last weekend, I was a guest on Satyamev Jayate with Aamir Khan where we discussed the issue of untouchability and how this illegal practice is still shockingly a part of Indian tradition.

In Dangariya village of Rajasthan, "lower caste" women are asked to remove their footwear as they pass "upper caste" neighbourhoods. This has been happening for several years, in spite of untouchability having been declared illegal by the Constitution of India.

If these women wore slippers in front of the so called 'upper caste neighbourhoods' they would be abused and their husbands would be troubled for days.

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Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz

Shri Ali Anwar Ansari, MP and National President, Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz, has described the incident of setting ablaze the houses of the pasmanda muslims of the Asthan village of the Kunda teshil, Pratapgarh, as preplanned and an instance of political conspiracy. He has alleged that the main perpetrators of this violence enjoy protection from top brass of the ruling party and hence are still roaming free.

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Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations

An All India Fact Finding team of rights activists belonging to the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO) visited the area in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh where 17 adivasis died as a result of firing by CRPF forces on the night of June 28, 2012. The team visited the villages of Sarkeguda, Kottaguda and Rajpenta on July 6th and 7th and elicited information about the events. The following is a brief report of the team. A more detailed report will follow in due course.

All three villages are small settlements located close to each other and in the jurisdiction of the Basaguda police station which is located about a km away. There is a CRPF camp at about three km from the three villages. While Sarkeguda with 25 households and Rajpenta (12 households) are in Korsagudem panchayat, Kottaguda with 30 households is in Cheepurupatti panchayat. Most residents of the three villages belong to the Dorla Koya tribe.

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[Today marks the 15th anniversary of the brutal Melavalavu massacre. Read about it in this excerpt from the chapter 'The Pattern of Abuse: Southern District Clashes in Tamil Nadu and the State's Response' from the report 'Broken People: Caste Violence Against India's Untouchables' published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in 1999.]

In September 1996, the village of Melavalavu, in Madurai district, was declared a reserved constituency under Article 243D of the Indian constitution.[256] The declaration signaled that the Melavalavu panchayat (village council), which covers eight villages with approximately 1,000 Dalit families,[257] would have seats reserved for scheduled-caste candidates.[258] In June 1997, a group murder of elected Dalits by neighboring Thevars signaled that constitutionally mandated shifts in legal power to scheduled castes would not be tolerated by caste Hindus displaced from their once secure elected positions.

Several observers have attributed the violence in the village and the resulting tensions to a shift in power relations brought on by the government's mandate of reservation of panchayat seats for Dalits. Dr. George Mathew of the New Delhi Institute of Social Sciences visited the area along with two other researchers soon after the murders. He published his conclusions in an article in The Hindu:

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Please copy and mail the letter published below to the various authorities listed at the bottom (with email ids) to protest the detention of Satyendra Murli, Ambedkarite journalist, by Jaipur police 

~~~

Date : June 27, 2012

To,

The Commissioner of Police,

Jaipur Police,

Rajesthan.

Sub: information regarding illegal detention/ arrest of Journalist Satyendra Murli for offences under IPC and IT Act.

Sir,

I am a human rights activist who became aware through the internet and media that Mr. Satyendra Murli, who is a Journalist by profession, has been arrested by Jaipur police due to the violation of Indian Penal Code, 1860, and Information Technology Act, 2005. As per this information, the allegation made against Mr. Satyender Murli was that he shared or circulated the photo of Mr. Mahatma Gandhi, which was already available on Facebook.

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Terrible attack on Irular people in Thenneri village - urgent support action required

Message from Makkal Mandram

Dear Friends,

A terrible atrocity is unfolding against the Irula people in Thenneri village at the hands of the dominant Mudaliar caste. There are 10 Irula families living in Thenneri Village, Walajabad Taluk, Kancheepuram District. Irulars are an adivasi community (listed as scheduled tribe) mainly living in Northern districts of Tamil Nadu. In this village, they are living on government land (Natham Porambokku) for the past 15 years. Two Irula families are living on a piece of land which is close to the property owned by one Ekambaram Mudaliar. He has encroached around an acre of porambokku land including the piece of land on which these two Irula families live. This Ekambaram Mudaliar is a landlord who is running several businesses.

In the past few months, these 10 families had applied for caste certificate and title deed (patta) for the land on which they live, with the help of Makkal Mandram. Karthi, an Irula youth from Thenneri village, is very active in Makkal Mandram for several years. As a result of the initiative taken by the people and regular follow up, the 10 families managed to get their caste certificates during the last week. The Revenue District Officer (RDO) of Kancheepuram, who gave these certificates, had also conducted an enquiry about the ownership of land and had assured these people that they will be given title deed (pattas) for the porambokku land on which they have their homesteads.

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