Indian Media: Cowardice at best & Arrogant at worst

http://upliftthem.blogspot.com/2007/12/aaja-nachle-scandal-indian-media.html
Read this article on upliftthem about the recent controversy on "derogatory song lines" in a hindi movie. These Indian Ambedkarites writers bring such an insight into this issue and how the Indian media covered the whole issue without much thoughts to it. Aaja Nachle Scandal & INDIAN MEDIA: Cowardice at Best and Arrogant at Worst: Read Further!? Caste Pathology infested actors, Bollywood and Indian Media whores!?:It is quite understable that there is a huge population out there in India who are infected with this untreatable non-psychiatric but worst than psychiatric illness called "caste".

Saint Guru Ghasidas & Satnami in Cahhattisgarh

Niralaji writes about

Guru Ghasidas (1756-1836) was the founder of the Satnami community in Chhattisgarh. The great saint of Chattisgarh followed simple and scientific approaches like Lord Buddha to eradicate caste system and fought against ignorance of hindus and Brahmins to uplift the from caste atrocities and pathology, a revered saint of Chattisgarh.

http://www.satyaguru.org/ghasidas.html

Guru Ghasidas (1756-1836) was the founder of the Satnami community in Chhattisgarh. He was born in the village Girodhpuri in the Raipur district. During his lifetime, the political atmosphere in India was one of exploitation. Ghasidas experienced the evils of the caste system at an early age, which helped him understand the social dynamics in a caste-ridden society and reject social inequity. To find solutions, he traveled extensively in Chhattisgarh.

SAINT TUKARAM-17th Century Great saint and scholar

I am updating the "Great Saints & Scholars List", today's addition is our great Saint "Tukaram", a 17th century poet and saint (1608-1649). Born and raised in a tiny village in the state of Maharastra was raised to the greatest of saints from a poorest family (one of the victims of the hindu's caste system), despite all the odds of those days, he shattered the Brahmins myths and iron wall and became a saint revered by Maharastrians then and today. GSS&H is only deals with the scholarly aspects of this saint, not pandering over his "cult Bhakti" and god worshipping phenomenon of his time. Though these yester year saints would have choosen other means to make changes in societies, it probably would not have made any sense at that time, when just speaking out aginst hindu varnashrama would have made them killed by the hindu terrorists, so they might have wisely choosen "In the Name of God" pathway, but would have completely involved in what they were doing. Neverthless, it is their great talents and power over the ordinary, mundane people that make them saints, not the godly worshiping or craps like that. Many of the listed saints here took that path as the hindu's were barbarians and kill at sight if any lower caste people trying to come up, but the god worshiping pathway probably saved all these saints, but eventually Tukaram was got killed, Nandanar was god killed by Brahmins and the list goes on and on.....!

Read the Biography: http://www.poemhunter.com/sant-tukaram/biography/

During his 41 years, Tukaram composed over 5,000 abhangs. Many of them speak of events in his life, which make them somewhat autobiographical. Yet, they are focused on God, Pandurang, and not Tukaram. His abhangs became very popular with the masses of common people. It was this very popularity that caused the religious establishment (the high caste Brahmins) to hate and persecute Tukaram. as, he was causing them to lose their power over the people. There are many miracles attributed to Tukaram. ..

CALIFORNIA School Board & Invasion of Hindu fundamentalists into Text Books!!

SikhSpectrum.com Quarterly Issue No.22, February 2006

Now, Hindu Nationalists Rewriting California Textbooks
Angana Chatterji
The attempts of diasporic Hindu nationalist organizations in the United States to intervene in revising segments on India, Indian history, and Hinduism in 6th grade textbooks in California State schools is disturbing.

On December 2, 2005, the Curriculum Commission, an advisory body to the California State Board of Education accepted 131 of the 153 revisions proposed by Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) and Vedic Foundation (VF), two groups affiliated with Hindutva, militant Hindu nationalist ideology. The edits offered by these groups were adopted amid intense lobbying and the misrepresentation that their views represent those of 'ALL HINDUS' in the diaspora. This bears testimony to the power and resources of long-distance Hindu nationalism, and its organizing capabilities in the United States.

The changes proposed by HEF, VF, and the Ad Hoc Committee, on the basis of recommendations made by Professor Shiva Bajpai, who too is affiliated with the World Association for Vedic Studies, a Hindu nationalist organization, assert a nationalistic and mythic history of India as 'social fact'. Contrary to reputable scholarship, the revisions refute the migration of Aryans, associated by historians with the emergence of Hinduism, from Central Asia into India.

The revisions posit Hinduism as indigenous to India and ascribed with its origins, rendering mute the histories of adivasis (tribal, first peoples) and their subjugation by Hindus. On page 238, the Ad Hoc Committee proposed, and the Curriculum Commission accepted, that the current text, 'The Aryans created a caste system' be replaced with: 'During Vedic times, people were divided into different social groups (varnas) based on their capacity to undertake a particular profession.'

Such storying dissociates the caste system from Hinduism, and discounts and neutralizes the oppressive structure and politics via which the caste system was constituted. It presents the caste system as a fluid arrangement, not restricted by ancestry. On page 245, the Ad Hoc Committee proposed, and the Curriculum Commission accepted, that the current text, 'Men had many more rights than women', be replaced with: 'Men had different duties (dharma) as well as rights than women. Many women were among the sages to whom the Vedas were revealed.' The inequity of women's rights is legitimated and discoursed as 'different rights', invisibilizing women's subordinated role in a patriarchal society, and the Vedas posed as 'revealed' doctrines.
The revisions highlight Hindutva's misogyny and bigotry, and assert a non-reflective gaze at power that justifies Hindu dominance and cultural nationalism. Their history makes Hinduism uniform, monotheistic, and monolithic, dismissing the disenfranchisement of women, dalits, adivasis, and religious minorities under centuries of Hindu ascendancy in what is today India, and therefore their ongoing struggles for justice and self-determination. What message are we sending children?

The positions taken by HEF and VF are deliberate, and consistent with the attempts of Hindutva groups toward rewriting history in India, where sectarian education campaigns undertaken by Hindu extremist groups demonize minorities through the teaching of fundamentalist curricula. The Hindu right-wing has instituted an educational network for rural and disenfranchised peoples in India, building on a mandate that validates the paramountcy of a 'Hindu worldview' and the assembling of a Hindu state.

Such corruption of education incites political and social fires, cultivating a culture of hatred toward non-Hindus and those that refuse to submit to Hindutva's tyranny. Hindu nationalist organizations, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have spearheaded this movement in India, successfully penetrating into educational systems and centralized regulatory commissions. The RSS has fashioned an institutional umbrella that has had damaging impact on education at the local level.

Created by the RSS in 1977, the Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan network focuses on moral, extracurricular and physical education for 'mind, body, and spirit'. The Vidya Bharati system supervises over 18,000 schools in India, with a shared curriculum across the country. The RSS has established a network of schools, such as the Vanvasi Kalyan Parishads, Vivekananda Kendras, Sewa Bharatis, Ekal Vidyalayas, to advance the ideological agenda of Hindu nationalism.

For adivasis (referred derogatorily by Hindu nationalists as 'vanavasis' or 'forest dwellers') and dalits (erstwhile 'untouchable' castes), this ongoing reality of Hinduization forces their coercive incorporation into Brahmanical Hinduism. Hindu nationalists have utilized such educational networks as mechanisms through which to recruit and mobilize women, adivasis, and dalits in campaigns against religious minorities. The participation of Hinduized women, adivasi, and dalit communities in the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 exemplifies this pattern.
Following the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) accession to power at the centre in 1998, Hindu nationalist educators were inducted into the National Council for Education and Research Training (NCERT), the national curriculum development and review body, to make changes to school curricula. With the defeat of the BJP at the centre in 2004, processes to reverse these changes have been instated. The United States Department of State, in its International Religious Freedom reports of 2002, 2003, and 2004, stated that attempts at Hinduizing education endangered religious freedom in India. Now it appears that this same strategy is insinuating itself in California.

Hindu nationalist curricula must not masquerade as 'standard education' in California. The California State Board of Education must note that the VF and HEF and their supporters are closely connected to Hindu nationalist organizations. The HEF, its coordinators and advisors, for example, include members of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS, the US counterpart of the RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHP-A), another key Hindutva organization. The Hindu American Foundation has threatened legal action against the California Board of Education in regard to the textbook changes. Its president, Dr. Mihir Meghani, has been a member of both the HSS and VHP-A.

Hindu nationalists in the US have been targeting Professors Michael Witzel (Harvard University), James Heitzman (UC, Davis), and Stanley Wolpert (UCLA). These scholars reviewed the edits proposed by Hindu nationalists and suggested responsible changes premised on credible histories. Mr. Gaurang Desai of the HSS derogatorily equated Professor Witzel to Hitler in speaking to the Curriculum Commission. This is ironic criticism given Hindutva's professed admiration for Hitler and the Nazi Party, as Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, an early RSS ideologue, expressed in 1938, in 'We or Our Nation Defined':
'Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races -- the Jews. National pride at its highest has been manifested here'.
He continued:

'The non-Hindu people in Hindustan [homeland of Hindus] .... may stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment, not even citizen's rights.'
After being nominated Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001, Mr. Narendra Modi incorporated the teachings of Hindutva in his governance of Gujarat. According to a Times of India article, entitled, 'In Modi's Gujarat, Hitler is a textbook hero' in tenth grade school texts: 'present a frighteningly uncritical picture of Fascism and Nazism. The strong national pride that both these phenomena generated, the efficiency in the bureaucracy and the administration and other "achievements" are detailed, but the exterminations of Jews and atrocities against trade unionists, migrant laborers, and any section of people who did not fit into Mussolini or Hitler's definition of rightful citizen do not find mention.'
Hate mail directed at Professor Witzel has accused him of being a 'racist'. This is a despicable example of slander, and, in the name of a high moral principle, makes a mockery of the seriousness of racism. Respected and credentialed scholars such as Professor Witzel and others who served on the review panel must be judged by the merits of their scholarship. Instead, Hindu nationalists, such as Mr. Desai and Dr. Yvette Rosser, who ambiguously refers to Professor Witzel as 'a professor from Harvard University' (India-West), systematically fabricate libelous and defamatory allegations to discredit individuals, rather than engage with integrity the issues raised by those who oppose them.
Issues of racism and ethnocentrism that diasporic communities are confronted with in the United States are of critical concern and prompt us to seek curricular changes, hoping that a respectful curriculum will further facilitate a multicultural society. In proposing curricular changes, we must however make distinctions between national pride that wishes to put forward a uniform and glorifying version of history and the scholarship of history, which seeks to present the complexities within. Fiction as history does not benefit Indian-American and other California school-goers, for whom engagement with the past must facilitate a deep questioning of how things come to be, of what constitutes knowledge, of how knowledge is contested, so that the study of history informs the work of citizenship.

Jacob Riis, "HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES"

How the other half lives, a fascinating book written by Jacob Riis, more fascinating fact is a book written in the year 1890, mostly deal with the poor and underclass and their housing needs, the tenements and landlords and government policies. The whole book is available in an hypertext format, this format was aimed to reproduce the whole book. Look at the 130-140 year old images and pictures of New York residential buildings and the graphics of people.

Here is the introduction of the Book and a link to the whole book in hypertext format.
"Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives"

Introduction:

1. LONG ago it was said that "one half of the world does not know how the other half lives." That was true then. It did not know because it did not care. The half that was on top cared little for the struggles, and less for the fate of those who were underneath, so long as it was able to hold them there and keep its own seat. There came a time when the discomfort and crowding below were so great, and the consequent upheavals so violent, that it was no longer an easy thing to do, and then the upper half fell to inquiring what was the matter. Information on the subject has been accumulating rapidly since, and the whole world has had its hands full answering for its old ignorance.

2. In New York, the youngest of the world's great cities, that time came later than elsewhere, because the crowding had not been so great. There were those who believed that it would never come; but their hopes were vain. Greed and reckless selfishness wrought like results here as in the cities of older lands. "When the great riot occurred in 1863," so reads the testimony of the Secretary of the Prison Association of New York before a legislative committee appointed to investigate causes of the increase of crime in the State twenty-five years ago, "every hiding-place and nursery of crime discovered itself by immediate and active participation in the operations of the mob. Those very places and domiciles, and all that are like them, are to-day nurseries of crime, and of the vices and disorderly courses which lead to crime. By far the largest part--eighty per cent. at least--of crimes against properly and against the person are perpetrated by individuals who have either lost connection with home life, or never had any, or whose homes had ceased to be sufficiently separate, decent, and desirable to afford what ate regarded as ordinary wholesome influences of home and family. . . . The younger criminals seem to come almost exclusively from the worst tenement house districts, that is, when traced back to the very places where they had their homes in the city here.'' Of one thing New York made sure at that earls stage of the inquiry: the boundary line of the Other Half lies through the tenements.

3. It is ten years and over, now, since that line divided New York's population evenly. To-day three-fourths of its people live in the tenements, and the nineteenth century drift of the population to the cities is sending ever-increasing multitudes to crowd them. The fifteen thousand tenant houses that were the despair of the sanitarian in the past generation have swelled into thirty-seven thousand, and more than twelve hundred thousand persons call them home. The one way out he saw--rapid transit to the suburbs--has brought no relief. We know now that these is no way out; that the "system" that was the evil offspring of public neglect and private greed has come to stay, a storm-centre forever of our civilization. Nothing is left but to make the best of a bad bargain.

4. What the tenements are and how they grow to what they are, we shall see hereafter. The story is dark enough, drawn from the plain public records, to send a chill to any heart. If it shall appear that the sufferings and the sins of the "other half," and the evil they breed, are but as a just punishment upon the community that gave it no other choice, it will be because that is the truth. The boundary line lies there because, while the forces for good on one side vastly outweigh the bad--it were not well otherwise--in the tenements all the influences make for evil; because they are the hot-beds of the epidemics that carry death to rich and poor alike; the nurseries of pauperism and crime that fill our jails and police courts; that throw off a scum of forty thousand human wrecks to the island asylums and workhouses year by year; that turned out in the last eight years a round half million beggars to prey upon our charities; that maintain a standing army of ten thousand tramps with all that that implies; because, above all, they touch the family life with deadly moral contagion. This is their worst crime, inseparable from the system. That we have to own it the child of our own wrong does not excuse it, even though it gives it claim upon our utmost patience and tenderest charity.

5. What are you going to do about it? is the question of to-day. It was asked once of our city in taunting defiance by a band of political cutthroats, the legitimate outgrowth of life on the tenement-house level.[1] Law and order found the answer then and prevailed. With our enormously swelling population held in this galling bondage, will that answer always be given? It will depend on how fully the situation that prompted the challenge is grasped. Forty per cent. of the distress among the poor, said a recent official report, is due to drunkenness. But the first legislative committee ever appointed to probe this sore went deeper down and uncovered its roots. The "conclusion forced itself upon it that certain conditions and associations of human life and habitation are the prolific parents of corresponding habits and morals," and it recommended "the prevention of drunkenness by providing for every man a clean and comfortable home. Years after, a sanitary inquiry brought to light the fact that "more than one-half of the tenements with two-thirds of their population were held by owners veto trade the keeping of them a business, generally a speculation. The owner was seeking a certain percentage on his outlay, and that percentage very rarely fell below fifteen per cent., and frequently exceeded thirty. [2] . . .

The complaint was universal among the tenants that they were entirely smeared for, and that the only answer to their requests to have the place put in order by repairs and necessary improvements was that they must pay their rent or leave. The agent's instructions were simple but emphatic: 'Collect the rent in advance, or, failing, eject the occupants."' Upon such a stock grew this upas-tree. Small wonder the fruit is bitter. The remedy that shall be an effective answer to the coming appeal for justice must proceed from the public conscience. Neither legislation nor charity can cover the ground. The greed of capital that wrought the evil must itself undo it, as far as it can now be undone. Homes must be built for the working masses by those who employ their labor; but tenements must cease to be "good property" in the old, heartless sense. "Philanthropy and five per cent." is the penance exacted.


6. If this is true from a purely economic point of view, what then of the outlook front the Christian standpoint? Not long ago a great meeting was held in this city, of all denominations of religious faith, to discuss the question how to lay hold of these teeming masses in the tenements with Christian influences, to which they are now too often strangers. Might not the conference have found in the warning of one Brooklyn builder, who has invested his capital on this plan and made it pay more than a money interest, a hint worth heeding: "How shall the love of God be understood by those who have been nurtured in sight only of the greed of man?"
http://www.yale.edu/amstud/inforev/riis/about.html
http://www.yale.edu/amstud/inforev/riis/introduction.html

Thanks to David for making this book available online free for our readers
David Phillips,
davidp@minerva.cis.yale.edu
New Haven, CT, November 13, 1995

Professor C.Parvathamma -Scholar of the Year 2006

Great Scholar Blog pays tribute to late Professor C.Parvathamma,
the first woman economist of India, one of the most brilliant Indian woman & a top class
Ambedkarite Dalits of India. She just accomplished what our Savior Dr.Ambedkar
dreamed of the educated dalits to do to India.

Prof. C. Parvathamma 1927-2006
Here is piece wriiten on the obituary of C. Parvathamma
the first woman Sociologist published in the latest issue of Economic and Political Weekly (EPW Vol.42-No.3 25 January)

We mourn the passing away of Prof. C. Parvathamma (1927-2006) the first Dalit woman Sociologist of India and of course, the first generation of Dalit Sociologist. She passed away on 1st of August, 2006 at the Age of 79 in Mysore . She was former Head of the Department of Sociology, University of Mysore, and a recipient of and Rajyothsava Award (1990), Gargi Award (1999), Nadoja Award (2005). Widely admired Sociologist, prolific writer and respected teacher, Prof. Parvathamma was possibly the best Sociologist Mysore ever produced along with Prof. M N Srinivas.She obtained her Ph.D. at Victoria University , Machester under the supervison of Max Gluckman and contributed immensly to our understanding of South Indian village society and Dalits in India . In her pioneering ethnographic work and volumes on northern Karnataka villages, Prof. Parvathamma brought out with great sensitivity the power relations in village society and the oppression of landowning communities. Her writings, especially on Lingayats and their beliefs, are very impressive. Her discussions and research on Virasaivism as an anti-Brahmanical movement in South India is a much acclaimed contribution in the subject of Sociology. As an insider, she also evaluated the role of Dalit politicians and vehemently criticized them for their self-fulfilling prophesy and paying lip service to the problems of Dalits. Scheduled Castes at the Cross-Roads and New Horizons and Scheduled Castes both from Ashis Publications, New Delhi were pionreering works on Dalits by a Dalit in 1980s.
Through her dedicated study and research, she produced some of the best reports on the depressed classes and other marginalised sections of the society,
which, at one time, enabled the State Government to take corrective policy measures for the upliftment of these classes. Her academic credentials cannot be judged only though her seventy research articles and eleven books as the second genration Dalit Sociologists reveal the baggage of cultural capital she has passed on to them by sharing her life experiences as a pioneer in the profession . At the XX All India Sociological Conference in 1993 held at St. Aloysius College Mangalore she mesmerised one and all with her powerful lecture which was full of ideologcial anecdotes. Her one sentence which still resonates in my conciousness is, “If this nation needs one Gandhi then it needs thousnds of Ambedkar to break free form the age old tyranicl Hindu Social Order”. As an institution builder, Prof. Parvathamma played a critical role in building the Sociology Department of Mysore University. She was instrumental in creating a tradition of research and also in publishing Sociological works through Prasaranga. She also was member of a number of commiteees and of the first Govering Body of the ICSSR at the time of its inception.Even after her retirement from the university service in 1988 she continued her urge and zeal for research, and established the ‘Center for Research in Rural and Tribal Devlopment’ in Mysore itself. Coming from an untouchable family and being a woman, she suffered from triple discrimination. She faced a great ordeal when she could not find a rented accomodation in Mysore even after completing a Ph. D. from Menchester and becoming a Lecture at Mysore University . But through her grit and hard work she made a space for her in corridors of acedimeia where Dalits were never welcomed. It is really unfortunate that her contribution was not recognised either in Karnataka or outside and she remained in oblivian, although through her writings she kept on reminding her unpresent presence in the subjct of Sociology and in the policy formulations. She will remain alive for ever in the profession of Sociology and keep on inspiring the coming generation of Sociologists.

http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2006/08/03/prof-parvathamma/
http://atrocitynews.wordpress.com/2007/01/29/c-parthamma-paases-away/


A Pie in the Sky ? by Mrs Dr C Parvathamma,
studies the reservation policies implemented in the 1950's by the Indian
government.These policies, which were supposed to last for ten years, are still used in
the contemporary Indian society and have dangerous consequences.

Indeed, since reservations within government jobs and schools keep increasing, upper caste members try to get scheduled castes’ certificates and the latter try to get tribal certificates. The reservation race has become, as the author says, « a national sport », each trying to get his share, with the political support of the community members. This certificates smuggling is reinforced by the various lobbies, more powerful for the caste than for the tribes.The study mixes historical, cultural, sociological and anthropological elements and shows – through the comparative analysis of a tribal population (Katu Kuruba) and a schedule caste population (les Kuruba)- the perversity of a caste-based policy. The author points out the differences between these two groups and enables the reader to understand the very notions of caste and tribe. Mrs Parvathamma insists on the role of the NGO, such as DEED in Mysore District, in the construction of a political consciousness enabling the tribals to claim their rights.« The implementation of the reservation policy just underlined the differences and divisions, the author writes. It encouraged caste spirit and corporatism, instead of promoting secular, democratic and republican sentiments. »…or how the dreams of social unity promoted by independent India heroes, Gandhi and Dr Ambedkar, are being threatened by a positive discrimination for which they fought. How the very notion of diversity represents a danger for social cohesion. How a society that abolished the caste system makes it the basis of its social policy. The book is built on a series of themes: after introducing the evolution of the caste system, the author presents anthropological aspects of Kuruba and Katu Kuruba and, in the last chapters, gives a political and historical analysis of the reservation policies’ evolution.The conclusion offers suggestions for corrective measures: assessment of the impact and rationalization of the policy, classification of the eligible social groups, definition of a calendar, un-enrollment of currently eligible groups for more democracy, more efficiency, more secularism and more ethics.

http://doc-aea.datapps.com/pub_cgi/document_sho.pl?document_id=1312&lang=fr

A Poem in response to Bant Singh's Video Letter!

Simpe, gentle and golden quality, Ravi you have got the creative talents and fine writing quality, that can send thousands of arrows into casteistic people's heart, yeah, straight into their heart!.


Ravi - Birmingham Jan 18th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wellsPumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold minesDiggin’ in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I riseUp from a past that’s rooted in painI rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I riseInto a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I riseBringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I riseI riseWe riseWe rise

Anti-Conversion Law- This is a disgrace to India and disgusting to the society

Anti-Conversion Law- This is a disgrace to India and disgusting to the society.
State governments after state governments in India are becoming cruel to Dalits in their administration by passing such barbaric laws like anti-conversion laws to prevent people from choosing the religion or beliefs of their choice.

States such as Tamil Nadu alredy bitten the dust in creating a anti conversion law that is against the very human rights and the anti-conversion law in TN was later revoked what a shame on this Jayalalitha and those involved in such crimes. And now, Himachal Pradesh became a clown state among the clowns who are destroying the dalit's progress and their basic rights.

These leaders and the law makers are nothing but goons and scoundarals of the nation of India and must be funished with highest legal actions for voilating the human rights in India by illegal laws and legal mishandling of the state administration.
They all must go to jail for discriminating and humiliating dalits using anti conversion law.

The governor of Himachal Pradesh state, Shri Justice Vishnu Sadashiv Kokje, has given his assent to the anti-conversion law passed by the state legislature in December 2006. The bill has now passed into law.

Minority groups had expressed grave concern that the ‘Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill, 2006’ was passed by the secular Congress Party, after similar laws were passed and strengthened in states ruled by the Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) last year, report human rights organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). CSW partner organisation, the All India Christian Council (AICC) is considering a legal challenge to the law at the Supreme Court.

CSW previously reported that Christians faced a fresh wave of harassment by Hindu extremist groups after the bill was passed. Further attacks have subsequently takenplace.

Dr Joseph D’souza, President of the Dalit Freedom Network and the All India Christian Council, said, “It is highly regrettable that the secular Congress government in Himachal Pradesh has chosen to pass this law, which severely undercuts the fundamental right to freedom of religion, particularly for exploited Dalits and tribals.

“The assent of the governor amounts to an endorsement of the discrimination and persecution against religious minorities in that state, which has already begun since the bill was passed on 29 December.”

CSW’s Advocacy Director, Tina Lambert, said, “Hindu extremist groups already seem to have been bolstered by the passage of this law, encouraged by the state-sponsored religious freedom restrictions which are becoming ever more common across India. This is a very troubling trend, and we urge the international community to make urgent representations to the Indian government about the proliferation of anti-conversion legislation.”

Jaykanthan- A Socially Consious Writer

A Tamil Writer very well regarded for his intellectually stimulating short stories and tamil literature in the modern years. His ability to bring the life of downtrodden people to the mainstream thinking and to the public is something very special, only a few can accomplish with a style and genuine interest.

The following review by S.Viswanathan on the work of Jayakanthan is very interesting and informative.

A writer in his world

S. VISWANATHAN
in Chennai
An outstanding oeuvre that reflected the travails of the downtrodden and challenged the belief systems of the middle class wins the Jnanpith Award for the Tamil writer Jayakanthan.

Dr.Ambedkar-The Arising Light