(This is the English version of the press-note circulated by the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz (AIPMM). Translated by Khalid Anis Ansari) In a village in Bihar’s East Champaran district the lives of the poor Muslims belonging to backward castes has been under continuous threat from the dominant caste Muslims for the last seven …
Second phase of violence in Assam: Update from NCHRO
Press Release Guwahati, 30-11-2012. Following the news reports about the second phase of violence and the continuance of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps for over five months in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) areas, a team of National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations (NCHRO) visited the places and met the affected people, some …
Dalit Mahila Garima Yatra: Updates from the Karwan
Asha Kowtal Following the spate of media reports of gang rapes on dalit women in Haryana, several dalit organizations came together to express solidarity with the rape survivors and outrage against the institutionalized sexual violence on dalit women, by conducting a Karwan called Dalit Mahila Garima Yatra. In this photo-essay, through images we bring …
Law, Society and Dalits in India – Part 2
Karthik Navayan Continued from here. The Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 Article 17 of Indian Constitution seeks to abolish ‘untouchability’ and its practice in any form is forbidden. It is basically a “statement of principle” that needs to be made operational with the apparent objective to remove humiliation and multifaceted harassments …
Terrible attack on Irular people in Thenneri village
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 …
Attacks on Dalits in Koothirambakkam near Chennai
(Fact finding report first published in April 2003 by PUCL) Team members 1. Sheelu, President, Tamil Nadu Women’s Collective 2. T.S.S. Mani PUCL, Chennai – Chengai District Committee. 3. Ponnuthai, Women’s Forum Against Violence on Women, South Tamil Nadu. 4. W.G.Latha – Tamil Nadu Resource Team. 5. Jessy , Kanchi People’s Forum 6. Mahesh, Kanchi …
The warriors who slayed babies and other tales
Rahi Gaikwad The name Ranvir is usually given to a boy. It means brave warrior or battle hero. This is the name a section of landed castes in Bihar, chiefly the Bhumihar landlords, adopted to christen themselves as an army of warriors, the Ranvir Sena In Hindu mythology, the idea of the warrior king who wages …
Cartoons, Caste and Epistemic Violence
Nilesh Kumar ‘These upper-caste authors who are forever miles away from reality and who can only make ceremonial and meaningless speeches in big meetings, can never understand what we the shudras and atishudras have to suffer and what calamities we have to undergo. All this is not entirely unknown to the high-caste …
The caste-neutral whip and other jokes
Kuffir It is a clear visual representation of ‘secular violence’, which has its roots in the presentation of the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist movement as an unproblematic social organization and process, through which India gained freedom for the betterment and advance of all its ‘citizens.’ – Savari, in ‘Whipping up ‘critical pedagogy’: Uncritical …