Palash Twitter: Fwd: [indiathinkersnet] US Senate on untouchability in India

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Xavier William <varekatx@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 3:56 PM
Subject: Fwd: [indiathinkersnet] US Senate on untouchability in India
To: india-unity@yahoogroups.com, indiathinkersnet@yahoogroups.com, KeralaDD@yahoogroups.co.uk, Mahajanapada@yahoogroups.com

Here is a forward from a Dalit oranization. Brahmanism talks of Sanadhana Dharma and the high philosophy of the Vedas. What was Brahminism able to accomplish in 5000 years of so called Indian culture except to trample on the rights of the Dalits and the Adivasis who number over 200 million and keep them subjugated? Why are the Hindutwa forces so touchy about conversions? It is because most if not all of the converts are Dalits and Adivasis and when they convert the high castes are losing their birthright to the slave labor of the Dalits. The likes of Venkat blames Christianity and Islam for all the aggression in the world. They also boast that Hindus had no part in global aggression. They did not take up any global aggression because they already had enslaved a large population in India itself and did not have to exploit any slave labor abroad. So it was not out humanism or high philosophy that Hinduism efrained from aggressions abroad. What is more the higher cases did not mind being ruled by aggressors as long as they could go on trampling on the rights of the Dalits and exploiting them inhumanely.
The real enemies of the Hindus are not the Christians or the Muslims or the Buddhists, they are themselves and thousands of years of inhuman exploitation

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Joe Raju <aa5756@wayne.edu>
Date: Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 12:25 AM
Subject: [indiathinkersnet] US Senate on untouchability in India
To: indiathinkersnet@yahoogroups.com

Dr. A. K. Biswas,
Former Vice-Chancellor,
B. R. Ambedkar University, Muzaffarpur, Bihar
emial:born.bengali@gmail.com

21st September 2010

To
President Barak Obama,
United States of America,
White House,
Washington DC,
USA

Dear President Obama,

Subject: Implementation of Concurrent Resolution of US Senate on
untouchability in India

We have learnt from media reports that accompanied by the US'
First
Lady Michelle Obama, you are scheduled to pay a State visit to India
in the forthcoming November. I, on my own behalf as well as on behalf
of over three hundred million people belonging to the scheduled castes
(also called dalits) and scheduled tribe communities, who are the
underprivileged and discriminated humanity at the bottom of Indian
society, extend a warm welcome to you. On this occasion, we
respectfully remind you of the Concurrent Resolution [H. Con. Res. 139:
110th session] of the US Senate expressing a sense that the United
States should address the ongoing problem of untouchability afflicting a
population in India as large as the aggregate population of USA. As a
Senator, you are too aware of the contents and connotations of the said
Resolution to warrant its reiteration. Nonetheless a brief reference to
the resolution would refresh you memory.
The Concurrent Resolution of July 24, 2007 fully recognized that
vast
multitude of population of India are denied and deprived of their
fundamental rights including right to life, dignity and security,
equality of treatment due to widespread practice of untouchability. They
are discriminated in quality education; equitable employment
opportunities and subjected to brutal atrocities--- physical, mental as
well as psychological that block all avenues for their upward mobility
in life and station. The aforesaid Concurrent Resolution dwelt on the
atrocities as follows:

1. `.......Untouchables', now known as the Dalits, and the people of
the
forest tribes of India, called Tribals, who together number
approximately 200,000,000 people, are the primary victims of caste
discrimination in India;
2. "......discrimination against the Dalits and Tribals has existed for

more than 2,000 years and has included educational discrimination,
economic disenfranchisement, physical abuse, discrimination in medical
care, religious discrimination, and violence targeting Dalit and Tribal
women;
3. "......Article 17 of the Constitution of India outlaws
untouchability;
4. "despite numerous laws enacted for the protection and betterment of
the Dalits and Tribals, they are still considered outcasts in Indian
society and are treated as such; moreover, in practice, Dalits and
Tribals are frequently denied equal treatment under the law;
5. "...... Dalit women suffer both caste and gender discrimination as a

result of the deficient administration of justice and are often raped
and attacked with impunity;
6. "......the National Commission on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes has declared that many of the reported cases of atrocities
against Dalits and Tribals end in acquittals;
7. "......despite the fact that many Dalits do not report crimes for
fear of reprisals by the dominant castes, national police statistics
averaged over the past five years by the National Commission on
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes show that 13 Dalits are murdered
every week, five Dalits' homes or possessions are burnt every week, six
Dalits are kidnapped or abducted every week, three Dalit women are
raped every day, 11 Dalits are beaten every day and a crime is
committed against a Dalit every 18 minutes;
8. ".......many Dalits girls are forced to become temple prostitutes
who
are then unable to marry and may be auctioned to urban brothels, and
many women trafficked in India are Dalit women;
9. ".......low-caste unborn females are targeted for abortions;
10. "according to Human Rights Watch and India's official National
Family Health Survey, most Dalits and Tribals are among those poorest
of the poor living on less than $1 per day; most of India's bonded
laborers are Dalits; and half of India's Dalit children are
undernourished, 21 percent are `severely underweight', and 12 percent
die before their 5th birthday;
11. ".......Dalits and other low-caste individuals often suffer from
discrimination and segregation in government primary schools leading to
low enrollment, high drop-out, and low literacy rates, perhaps linked to
a perception that Dalits are not meant to be educated, are incapable of
being educated, or if educated, would pose a threat to village
hierarchies and power relations;
12. ".......the Dalits and Tribals maintain higher illiteracy rates
than non-Dalit populations; and
13. ".......the HIV/AIDS epidemic is India is massive and Dalits and
Tribals are significantly affected by HIV/AIDS:
In a nutshell, the instances explain and illustrate the predicaments

encountering life of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in every
nook and corner of India. The contents of the Resolution drive one to
believe like the British philosopher Thomas Hobbes that the life of
Dalit as well as tribal communities in India is "solitary, nasty,
brutish and short." With unmitigated discrimination, exploitation and
inequality against so vast a population since ages, no country can hope
to prosper and remain peaceful or attain peace and stability, essential
for growth and prosperity. This makes India the darkest spot to warrant
attention for safeguarding human rights and dignity urgently.
It hardly needs to be stressed that immediate solution to these
perilous problems calls for global attention. The US Senate, in the
stated circumstances, adopted the following strategies on its part to
address these burning issues in the interest of scheduled castes and
scheduled tribes of India:

(1) raising the issues of caste discrimination, violence against women,
and untouchability through diplomatic channels both directly with the
Government of India and within the context of international bodies;
(2) encouraging the United States Agency for International Development
to ensure that the needs of Dalit organizations are incorporated in the
planning and implementation of development projects;
(3) ensuring that projects that positively impact Dalit and Tribal
communities, especially Dalit women, are developed and implemented;
(4) ensuring that cooperative research programs targeting rural health
care, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and rural technology contain proper focus
on the Dalits and Tribals;
(5) ensuring that anyone receiving funding in India from the United
States Government--
(A) is aware that it is United States Government policy that
caste discrimination is unacceptable, and that the United States
is
committed to eliminating it; and
(B) treat all people equally without engaging in caste
discrimination;
(6) ensuring that--
(A) qualified Dalits are in no way discouraged from working with
organizations receiving funding in India from the United States
Government, and that transparent and fair recruitment, selection, and
career development processes are implemented, with clear objective
criteria; and
(B) procedures exist to detect and remedy any caste discrimination in
employment conditions, wages, benefits or job security for anyone
working with organizations receiving funding in India from the United
States Government;
(7) encouraging United States citizens working in India to avoid
discrimination toward the Dalits in all business interactions; and
(8) discussing the issue of caste during bilateral and multilateral
meetings, including congressional delegations.
We, for whom these momentous Resolutions were adopted in the august
House, are completely unaware of follow-up actions, if any, taken by
USA authorities in this behalf and the outcome thereof. Your official
visit to India furnishes the perfect opportunity to acquaint and
appraise ourselves of the action on these resolutions that can go a
long, very long way to uplift the fate and fortune of three hundred
million Indians. By adopting the Concurrent Resolution, the US
lawmakers and the people alike have befriended the faceless Dalit and
tribal communities.
I can paraphrase the epoch-making speech of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther

King, Jr and say I have a dream that my 300 million fellow Dalit and
tribal men and women will one day live in a nation where they will not
be judged by the tag of their caste or tribe but by the content of
their character. We can never be satisfied as long as the Dalits and
tribal people are the victim of horrors of social inequality and
deprivation; economic and educational discrimination, exploitation and
oppression. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with
the fatigue of harsh treatment and atrocities, cannot gain access to
every opportunity available to Indians in the high end of the social
ladder. We cannot be satisfied as long as the dalit and tribal
communities' basic mobility from circumscribed social ghetto to the
wider world of freedom are effected through equal opportunity for
education and employment. We are not satisfied and we will not be
satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a
mighty stream investing true meaning and new life to three hundred
million dalits and tribals of India.
We, therefore, urge upon you to grant an appointment for
interaction
with a delegation of dalits and tribal thinkers and activists during
your forthcoming state visit to India. The proposed delegation,
comprising some 8-10 members, would wait upon you for suitably
briefing the travails of their life and times obtaining in India. The
dalit and tribal communities of India expect as well as demand full and
complete implementation of the strategies adopted by the august US
Senate in the interest of the downtrodden of India.
May I, on behalf of three hundred millions of Indians, once again
request you to please grant us an opportunity to call on your with a
delegation and brief their conditions during your forthcoming visit to
India?
With regards,

Yours most sincerely,

A. K. Biswas