[ZESTCaste] Fwd: Screening of INDIA UNTOUCHED on 2nd October
on the occasion of the 138th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi Nazariya Drishti-Natarani Film Club Presents Stalin K's documentary film INDIA UNTOUCHED - Stories of a People Apart Winner of One Billion Eyes - Documentary Film Festival Award. After six months traveling to Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Madurai, the film is coming back to Ahmedabad. Date - 2nd October Venue - Natarani, Usmanpura Time - 8:15 pm About India Untouched 108 minutes/Hindi, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalm with English sub-titles. This film is perhaps the most comprehensive look at Untouchability ever undertaken on film. Director Stalin K. spent four years traveling the length and breadth of the country to expose the continued oppression of 'Dalits,' the 'broken people' who suffer under a 4000 year-old religious system. The film introduces leading Benares scholars who interpret Hindu scriptures to mean that Dalits 'have no right' to education, and Rajput farmers who proudly proclaim that no Dalit may sit in their presence, and that the police must seek their permission before pursuing cases of atrocities. The film captures many 'firsts-on-film, ' such as Dalits being forced to dismount from their cycles and remove their shoes when in the upper caste part of the village. It exposes the continuation of caste practices and Untouchability in Sikhism, Christianity and Islam, and even amongst the communists in Kerala. Dalits themselves are not let off the hook: within Dalits, sub-castes practice Untouchability on the 'lower' sub-castes, and a Harijan boy refuses to drink water from a Valmiki boy. The viewer hears that Untouchability is an urban phenomenon as well, inflicted upon a leading medical surgeon and in such hallowed institutions as JNU, where a Brahmin boy builds a partition so as not to look upon his Dalit roommate in the early morning. A section on how newspaper matrimonial columns are divided according to caste presents urban Indians with an uncomfortable truth: marriage is the leading perpetuator of caste in India. But the film highlights signs of hope, too: the powerful tradition of Dalit drumming is used to call people to the struggle, and a young Dalit girl holds her head high after pulling water from her village well for the first time in her life. Spanning eight states and four religions, this film will make it impossible for anyone to deny that Untouchability continues to be practiced in India. Stalin K: Stalin K. is a human rights activist and award-winning documentary filmmaker. In recent years, he has become known for his pioneering 'participatory media' work with urban and rural communities, in which local people produce their own videos and radio programs as an empowerment tool. He is the Co-Founder of DRISHTI- Media, Arts and Human Rights, Convener of the Community Radio Forum-India, and the India Director of Video Volunteers. He is a renowned public speaker and has lectured or taught at over 20 institutions ranging from the National Institute of Design and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India, to New York University and Stanford and Berkeley in the US.
[ZESTCaste] �Secularism has become another religion�
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main34.asp?filename=Ne061007SECULARISM.asp CURRENT AFFAIRS eminences Secularism has become another religion French Marxist philosopher Étienne Balibar was in New Delhi last week for a series of lectures Étienne Balibar is a Marxist philosopher who is critical of hardline French secularists for their xenophobic intolerance of issues concerning French citizens of Arab and African descent. In the 2007 French presidential election, he was among the two hundred intellectuals who expressed support for the candidature of Marie-Ségolène Royal of the Socialist Party. Professor Emeritus of Moral and Political Philosophy at Université de Paris X Nanterre, and Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the University of California, Irvine, Balibar gave a series of lectures in New Delhi last week. S. Anand of TEHELKA joins Nivedita Menon, Reader in Political Science at the University of Delhi, and Aditya Nigam, Fellow at the Centre for Study of Developing Societies, in discussing with Balibar the overlap of racism, Islamophobia and secularism in a global context. Menon: You have written about the race riots in 2005 in the French banlieues, the suburbs, as a revolt of the excluded and have linked it to the contradictions of globalisation. What were the dynamics of these riots? Balibar: I am surprised these events provoke such curiosity in places as far away as Chicago and New Delhi since I think these riots were extremely banal in the sense that they are a type of urban disorder that has repeatedly taken place all over the world for a long period, owing to similar issues of difference. Perhaps the French were exceptional in thinking that the typical effects of the redistribution of populations created by globalisation, involving race and class factors, would not affect France. Theres also been extreme reluctance on the part of French commentators, not only of the Right but also the Left, to use race and racial categories. In France we have been trained to understand politics - whether secular ideologies, parliamentary politics, or social movements and campaigns - in universalistic terms. I dont say this tradition is completely over, that theres nothing left of it. But this tradition has been forced to reckon with the wrongs of French colonialism. The French citizens of African descent, the inner-city youth, formed a group in February 2005 calling themselves Indigènes de la RépubliqueNatives of the Republic. They were the children and grandchildren of colonialism, French-born youths of Arab and African extraction, who viewed the consequences of colonialism as anything but positive. This nomenclature is ironic since the word native was used in the colonies to refer to the subject-race while the French referred to themselves as citizens. By claiming to be natives of the republic, they are underlining the fact that the colony is now inside the republic - the neighbourhoods where the French Muslims are like colonial enclaves. Natives of the Republic assert their difference against a perspective based on civic and national integration. But the French Interior Minister [Nicolas] Sarkozy, now the president, saw Islam as a challenge to French citizenship. But these youth do still have faith in French democracy. For instance, when a group of rap artistes and others made a public intervention urging the rioters to re-direct their legitimate anger by registering as voters, I thought it was a naive suggestion. But in fact they did register in large numbers, and in the recent elections, the Left won massive majorities in the violence-affected banlieues. Anand: Did the violence during the riots justify the kind of global attention it received? Balibar: These are events that somehow illustrate the very different conditions in which politics is taking place in the contemporary world. The youngsters involved in the three-week uprising (a term the French intelligentsia is loathe to use), fought against their relegation to territories where republican equality did not reach - they did not contest the principles of French citizenship. They claimed their legitimate place within it. In this sense it was a revolt of the excluded, if not a molecular civil war. It is necessary first of all to ask whether this violence was spontaneous or, to the contrary, provoked, even deliberately planned. Menon: You have written about the media as passive organizers of social movements. In India too, the mainstream media has the monopoly over representing events in the public arena, thus shaping public perceptions of events as well sometimes, the events themselves. What was the role of the media during these events in France? Balibar: Yes, I have said that the media play the role of the passive organiser. The riots, the burning of cars, was magnified in the media. Contrary to what television coverage suggested, this highly
[ZESTCaste] Here, every village is a 'Khairlanji' today
Here, every village is a 'Khairlanji' today By Jaideep Hardikar Bhandara and Gondia, Sept 28: http://beyondmargins.blogspot.com/2007/09/here-every-village-is-khairlanji-today.html There is a palpable tension in the dalit basti of Pimpalgaon Kohali village, some 80 km from Bhandara in Lakhandur tehsil. The village is going in for panchayat election, and 'caste-card' is in play once more. Or leaders would ensure it does. This year our basti had to buy two tractors to complete 'our' work in the fields, because 'they' refused to lend us theirs, reveals Sumedh Lade, a neo-Buddhist (Mahars who have embraced Buddhism). Earlier this year, every Ambedkarite – the neo-Buddhists or converted dalits, as they are called here – in his village faced social and economic boycott. We were not allowed to shop; we were not offered any work, says Bhaiyyalal Motghare, a villager. The entire basti was erased from the BPL list (below poverty line), but we fought to bring back our names into it, he informs. Things have eased a bit off late, but only just. We know it's all superficial; a small trigger is enough. The village saw the dominant castes turned against the Ambedkarites, when one of the farmers from the latter registered a case under Prevention of Atrocities Act against a farmer from the former community during a village get-together. The matter was trivial, say villagers, but local leaders blew it up. Result: the tension triggered the rift, followed by complete isolation and boycott of the Buddhists. Pimpalgaon is a sample of what's happened – and is happening – across the rural Vidarbha, particularly in Bhandara and Gondia districts, exactly a year after four members of Bhotmange family were brutally killed in Khairlanji sparking a wave of violent protests in Maharashtra. Today, it's they versus us; but Buddhists are isolated, ostracized and living in fear and insecurity in village unto villages. You can see the reflection of this polarization and total isolation of Buddhists in village elections, notes Vinod Thakre, a BJP worker in Lakhandur, Bhandara. It's a stark reminder that the caste divide is a reality, but in the absence of any reconciliatory efforts on either side, it's growing worse for the Buddhists. Every small incident, charges Bhandara ZP member Vasant Einchilwar, is given a caste colour and tagged as a case of atrocity by the small time leaders. Threats by the dalit activists have become common that they'll slap an atrocity case even if the matter is trivial and could be resolved at village-level, he says. On the other hand, politicians from dominant castes exploit the situation to consolidate their base, by antagonizing the impoverished people of Buddhist community. This, coupled with fiery speeches and statements by the Republican leaders from outside, has fuelling the caste division farther, Einchilwar suggests. This past year has seen a spurt in the atrocity cases, though many were actually very trivial and personal issues, says a senior police officer in Bhandara. If there was any chance of reconciliation, political class ensured the tension remained. Yet, he admits that the genuine Atrocity cases fall apart due to pressure from the leaders of the dominant political class. Anger against Buddhists is growing. Nobody opposes the installation of Babasaheb Ambedkar's statues in villages, but there will be reaction if their leaders publicly humiliate us and our religious sentiments. This is what has happened over the last one year during such events in and around Bhandara, vitiating the village harmony, says deputy sarpanch of Pimpalgaon Ramchandra Parshuramkar. Agriculture work suffered due to it. Ostensibly, the exchange and interaction between the Buddhists and dominant castes in villages has stopped. In Surewada, a teacher from OBC community sprinkled cow-urine on dalit students to purify them six months ago. The teacher was transferred, but the incident further antagonized the Buddhist community. The matter is serious. Every village is a Khairlanji today, warns a senior police officer. While the four members of Bhotmange family were hacked to death in one stroke, the poor Buddhists would die a slow death everyday, being isolated and ostracized, he fears, in view of the alarming social fallout. Last month, an engineering student was denied accommodation by the landlord because he was an Ambedkarite, says Gondia-based journalist Kishor Borkar. Adds Rajendra Gajbhiye of Dhusala: Our community farmers did not get farm labourers this year, and Buddhist labourers didn't get work from dominant and upper caste farmers. Denied work, Buddhist farmers and farm labourers from Bhawal village in Bhandara, for instance, migrated to Dhusala where they got work from the landed farmers of their community. Migration shot up this year. One year of protest, hatred, isolation and riots hasn't resulted in any benefit or economic empowerment of dalits, including the more organized neo-Buddhists. The naxal
[ZESTCaste] Mala employees to fight ‘victimisation’
http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=contenttask=viewid=210855Itemid=63cattitle=Andhra%20Pradesh Mala employees to fight 'victimisation' Monday, 01 October 2007 Kadapa, October 01: Mala Mahanadu formed Mala Employees Association on Sunday to protect the interests of employees of the community in the movement against classification of Scheduled Castes, Mala Mahanadu State general secretary J.V. Ramana said on Sunday. Political forces were dividing SCs in order to bring about disunity and employees of Mala community were being victimised by their Madiga counterparts, Mr. Ramana alleged at a meeting here. Those demanding classification of SCs should foresee the threat of foregoing their constitutional rights, he cautioned. He charged political leaders with usurping crores of rupees earmarked for uplift of SCs. Administration's indifference to recognise Dalits in cases of atrocities against SC/STs and reluctance to issue caste certificates to genuine Dalits posed problems, he said. He alleged victimisation of Mala employees in the Treasury Department, suspensions, cut in increments and stoppage of promotions at the behest of Madiga employees. Madiga community should realise their folly in demanding classification of SCs, Mala Mahanadu district president R. Ramachandraiah said. Officials and upper castes subjected SCs to attacks and they would be countered, he said. Mala Employees Association district president D. Satyanand Babu announced election of a 39-member body for the association with K. Suresh Babu as working president, seven vice-presidents, six general secretaries, seven secretaries, four organising secretaries, five joint secretaries, a treasurer and six honorary advisors. --Agencies
[ZESTCaste] Dalit students battle prejudice and violence
http://koyatoor.blogspot.com/2007/09/dalit-students-battle-prejudice-and.html Sunday, September 30, 2007 Dalit students battle prejudice and violence Times of India Siddarth Varadarajan NEW DELHI: Vikram Ram, a Dalit student at the UniversityCollege of Medical Sciences (UCMS) in east Delhi, got a rudeshock when he sat down for his first meal at the hostel mess.``Bloody Shaddu'', he was told fiercely by a group of upper castestudents (using an abusive term for Scheduled Castes), ``youcannot eat with us''. Hurt and bewildered, he made his way to therow of tables where the Dalit students normally sit. According to the Dalit students, even the hostel has de factobeen ghettoised, with most of them on two floors. When RakeshKumar, an SC student, was assigned a room elsewhere, aneighbour said: ``We will not let you stay here, Shaddu. Yourkind of person cleans our toilets.'' Faced with the prospect ofconstant harassment, he asked to be shifted. When this reporter asked some upper caste boys at UCMSabout the term `Shaddu', they denied the word was ever used,except during arguments. After some prodding, one student,Anand Bakshi, said: ``It is only a pet name.''As for separate dining and living areas, the upper caste studentsthis reporter spoke to say there is no such policy. ``If at all theyeat and live together'', said Sudhir Kathuria, ``it is because theylike sticking to their own community''. Today, Vikram, Rakesh and several other Dalit students are ondharna. After years of discrimination, they say they have hadenough. The last straw was the violent attack on them by someupper caste students on February 22. UCMS authorities insist itwas a run-of-the-mill fight between students but the fact is severalDalits were badly beaten. The hostel PA system was used to asall `general category' students to assemble. The turban of DrJaswant Singh, a gentle, small-built Dalit, was pulled off and hewas punched and kicked. Another Dalit intern, Balwinder Bhatti,hid himself but the mob ransacked his room.When this reporter went to talk to the Dalit students, they weresuspicious. It was only gradually that their complaints poured out.Stubbornly, reluctantly. More than anything, it is the perceiveddiscrimination from the faculty that rankles. A tall, intensetwenty-something, Vikram had topped his school and had neverbefore experienced casteism. ``My parents say `thoda seh lo;but become a doctor at any cost','' he said, wistfully twisting hisstethoscope this way and that.The son of a driver, Vikram hasn't graduated despite being atUCMS for eight years. Like many SC students, he has frequentlybeen made to repeat exams. If the intake of reserved students is22, only four graduate on time.``We study as hard as anyone else but it is the faculty's casteismwhich is holding us back,'' said a Dalit student. Ram Das, a finalyear student, had just appeared in an exam. ``The first questionthe examiner asked was `Are you a bania?'. When I said no, hesaid `Then what? Are you from reserved category? What is yourcaste?'.``If an exam begins like this'', said Ram, ``we get demoralised,nervous. How are we supposed to cope?'' (The names of the students have been changed.)
[ZESTCaste] Dalit+OBC is Maya’s formula for Chhattisgarh (News)
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/222926.html Dalit+OBC is Maya's formula for Chhattisgarh Nitin Mahajan Posted online: Monday, October 01, 2007 at hrs IST RAIPUR, SEPTEMBER 30 After successfully wooing Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Chhattisgarh has decided to engineer a social pact with OBCs and Scheduled Castes to make inroads into the state polity. The state unit of the BSP is preparing to replicate Uttar Pradesh's social engineering experiment in the 2008 Assembly polls through an alliance with SCs and OBCs. Chhattisgarh BSP President Dau Ram Ratnakar said the party was confident that the alliance would succeed. The party has decided to contest all 90 Assembly seats in next year's polls, he said. As OBCs are a majority in the state, comprising mostly Sahus and Kurmis, an alliance of Dalits and OBCs will be an advantage for us in next year's Assembly polls, Ratnakar added. With the total population comprising 52 per cent OBCs and 22.3 per cent SCs, the party is hopeful that the alliance will be invincible. To bring OBCs into the party fold, bhaichara committees have been launched by the BSP in each of the parliamentary constituencies. The committees have been entrusted with the task of organising constituency-level contact programmes for these communities, he said. In the last Chhattisgarh Assembly polls held in 2003, the party had contested 52 seats out of which it secured 2. However, polling on one of these seats — Malkharauda — was annulled by the High Court and a bypoll held for the seat was won by the BJP. The BSP in the last Assembly elections had secured a total vote share of 5 per cent by contesting on 52 seats. The party hopes to improve the vote share significantly once the alliance of the two castes is established. Party sources pointed out that upper castes only constitute about 4 per cent of the total population here, but the state has always been governed by them. Once an alliance between OBCs and Dalits is achieved, along with some upper caste leaders coming into the party fold, the state BSP hopes to make significant gains in next year's Assembly polls. As part of the party's strategy to woo the community, several OBC ministers from Uttar Pradesh will address mass rallies in various parts of the state. Also, the charge of Chhattisgarh has been handed over by the national leadership over to OBC leader Sewak Ram Sahu to prepare for next year's Assembly polls. -- Subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a BLANK email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Are Madigas Behind Chiranjeevi?
http://www.humsurfer.com/view/are-madigas-behind-chiranjeevi Monday, October 1, 2007 Are Madigas Behind Chiranjeevi? Are madigas behind Chiranjeevi? This impression is rising as Manda Krishna Madiga's cutout was placed along with Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan in Machilipatnam region. How Krishna Madiga is connected with Chiranjeevi and the film? There is nothing, but the impressions are making rounds that the community is behind Chiranjeevi. It is true that Chiranjeevi is being considered the man of all now. This certainly wouldn't continue if he starts a party for himself. Chiranjeevi is worried only in that aspect. The first thing that happens to Chiranjeevi if he starts a new party is income tax ride by present government to threaten him. The next thing is lack of majority in elections as TDP would give tight competition. The next thing is chances for Congress to form government again as opposite votes would split into two between TDP and Chiranjeevi's party. The other thing is Chiranjeevi getting new set of enemies for the rest of his life. So, under these circumstances can Chiranjeevi dare to start a party? October 2nd is falling tomorrow. There was gossip that Chiranjeevi will be announcing his new party on the occasion of this Gandhi Jayanthi. But will he do that? There are no signals till now.
[ZESTCaste] BSP MLA shielding murderers of a dalit youth (News)
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/7594 BSP MLA shielding murderers of a dalit youth Mon, 2007-10-01 03:02 By Bobby Ramakant Mayawati led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has been trumpeting the welfare of dalits, but in UP state of India where they are in power, one of their own Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) is allegedly shielding the murderers of a dalit youth. On the fateful morning of 1 August 2007, a dalit youth Chakrasen was brutally assaulted by two upper-caste men and murdered in Bhadevra village of Pratapgarh district, about 200 kilometres away from the state capital Lucknow. Ram Shiromani Shukla, local Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA, has been protecting the accused. On 30 September 2007, a fact-finding team went to this village in the morning, led by Magsaysay awardee (2002) and head of National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) Dr Sandeep Pandey, retired Inspector General of Police SR Darapuri, and Dynamic Action Group activists Gyan, Sujit and Ram Kumar to strengthen community's voices for justice. Ironically this is yet another blot on BSP's claim to champion dalit's welfare in UP with BSP MLA and party workers shielding the alleged murderers of a talented dalit youth said Dr Sandeep Pandey. The deceased Chakrasen graduated from Allahabad University this year and had qualified for the State-level Engineering Entrance Examination. He came to the village a day before he was murdered, to meet his family before joining the Engineering College. On the ill-fated day of 1 August 2007, when he went out in the morning, Santosh Mishra and Akash Dubey allegedly started battering him. Chakrasen tried to escape to the nearby village Sudemau but Santosh and Akash followed him shouting 'thief'. In response to the false 'thief' alarm, some people from the Pasi community caught hold of Chakrasen. He was then tied up with a thick rope, beaten mercilessly, dragged, eyes were gouged with needles and beaten with rods and strangulated to death. Chakrasen's eyes held dreams of college and career. They didn't just kill him. They first punished him by smashing the eye that dared to dream of education. Santosh Mishra is a BSP party worker and close associate of Ram Shiromani Shukla, the local BSP MLA. On 11 August 2007, a fact-finding team of DAG members went to the said-villages, and met the members of the family as well as other villagers. Till then none of the assailants had been arrested. Surprisingly the role of BSP MLA was not protective towards the dalit community but instead BSP MLA kept the murderers in his protection and had pressurized the local administration not to arrest them. Dalit family members too were being threatened by BSP members to keep silent. The dreams to live with dignity fostered by dalits in the wake of the recent landslide victory for BSP in UP, are being thwarted by such unfortunate incidents. Chakrasen's grandfather Shiv Murat was distributing ration and kerosene in the village. Santosh and Akash made illegal demands for ration and kerosene. Chakrasen reportedly didn't allow them to take more ration or kerosene than the allotted quota. Santosh and Akash often used to fight with bhaiya for this, says his youngest brother Shaktisen. The family says they got even more upset when he got admission to the engineering college. One of the two accused, Santosh Mishra had threatened Shiv Murat by life. Shivmurat reported this death-threat to the local police 'thana' 10 months back but police did not pay any heed to it. Role of police in this case has been very dubious. When Chakrasen was being beaten brutally, the village pradhan Rammani Vishwakarma tried to call the police three times but all calls fell on deaf ears. Although the murder took place at about 6am on 1 August, the police registered a first information report (FIR) only at 7pm of that evening, due to mounting pressure from outraged villagers. The police first lodged the report under Section 304 i.e. culpable homicide not amounting to murder. It was only two days later, that section 302 was added. The police neither allowed the family of Chakrasen nor the villagers to go near the dead body. They took the dead body into their custody after reaching the spot. Panchnama was also not done. The family members of the deceased were called to the police station but the dead body was sent for post mortem before they could reach the police station. The family members of Chakrasen allege that the local police is trying to shield the accused and deliberately trying to weaken the case. For instance, police named Matadin as one of the main accused, who had died four years ago! The two main accused, Santosh and Akash, were arrested earlier on direct orders of Superintendent of Police, but later released on bail. After coming out on bail they had again beaten up the family members of Chakrasen. Let's hope dalit voices for justice are held in the current corridors of power in UP assembly and justice meted out at the
[ZESTCaste] Periyar An Iconoclast and a Reformer
http://www.chowk.com/articles/12637 Periyar An Iconoclast and a Reformer Shantanu Dutta September 20, 2007 I woke up to the news that in an apparent reaction to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's statements on Lord Rama and the Ramar Sethu controversy, miscreants pelted stones and hurled petrol bombs at his daughter's house near Ragigudda in J P Nagar. The Tamil Nadu CM had of course taken someheat of Sonia Gandhi and Man Mohan Singh by boldly claiming there was no historic proof of Lord Ram's existence. There was also no proof of Lord Ram having constructed a bridge and being an expert in engineering, he told a TV channel. It is one thing for an Italian born Sonia Gandhi and a Sikh Prime Minister to make such inflammatory statements and another thing for a born son of the soil Hindu to say so, albeit a rationalist and atheist. But the man who first said such things and more was not the current Dravidian Patriarch, Karunanidhi, but the original founder patriarch of the Dravidian movement, EVR Ramasami popularly known as Periyar. His birth anniversary was on the 17th September, just two days ago and unlike another social reformer, Vinoba Bhave, Periyar got his garlands and tributes. He remains an iconic figure in Tamil Nadu and unlike the Congress which seems to have completely abandoned its Gandhian legacy, as long people of Karunaninidhi's generation are active at least the legacy of EVR is safe. The first time that I had heard of Periyar was in the context of the Ravana Leelas that he and his organization, the DK used to conduct. This was as an answer to Ram Leela conducted in North. They would carry pictures of Hindu Gods garlanded with slippers and depict Hindu mythologies in obscene manner. In my childhood, I used to watch the Ram Leela but trying to imagine what the Ravana Leela might be like where the hero turned villain was exciting. Fortunately or unfortunately now the performances have now stopped having made their point about the trampling of the Dravidian identity by the Aryan one. But Periyar's contribution was far more than the eccentric and perhaps even offensive Ravana Leelas. He was initially a Congressman inducted into the party by Acharya Vinoba Bhave, C Rajagopalachari, Gandhiji and others. He passionately espoused Gandhian ideals, such as the use of khadi. However, he soon became disenchanted with the Congress and its indecisive ways when he brings up the issue of eliminating caste discrimination The Self-Respect Movement, founded by him in 1925, carried on a vigorous and ceaseless propaganda against ridiculous and harmful superstitions, traditions, customs and habits. He wanted to dispel the ignorance of the people and make them enlightened. He exhorted them to take steps to change the institutions and values that led to meaningless divisions and unjust discrimination. He advised them to change according to the requirements of the changing times and keep pace with the modern conditions. Self-respecters performed marriages without Brahmin priests (purohits) and without religious rites. They insisted on equality between men and women in all walks of life. They encouraged inter-caste and widow marriages. Periyar propagated the need for birth-control even from late 1920s. He gathered support for lawful abolition of Devadasi (temple prostitute) system and the practice of child marriage. In a sense Periyar and Gandhiji were contemporaries. Gandhiji was born in 1869 and Periyar in 1879. In many aspects they did or stood for similar things. But there were significant differences. Gandhiji's movement was deeply and irrevocably rooted in Hinduism, even if it was a kind of Hinduism that satisfied nobody. It did not satisfy the likes of Jinnah, who still thought of the Congress as a Hindu party and it of course did not satisfy the likes of Nathuram Godse and who thought that Gandhiji's Hinduism wasn't pure enough. Gandhiji did a lot to remove untouchability and was active in agitations like the temple entry movement but his stance on caste was ambivalent which made first EVR and later Dr. Ambedkar part ways with him. Some day it would be worthwhile to study the distance that both Dr. Ambedkar and Periyar covered in their journey away from Gandhi. Both were clear that the solution to the caste problem was not to be found within the boundaries of Hinduism but whereas Dr. Ambedkar found his answers in Buddhism, Periyar felt the answer lay in humanism and going down that route, he became progressively an atheist and a rationalist. I am not an atheist and believe that religion and a longing for God is firmly and deeply embedded in the racial memory of men and women because God created them in His image. But nevertheless, the anguish and pathos of Periyar in describing his experience as he looked at the dehumanization of life and God seemingly silent is best captured in his own words Men should not touch each other, see each other; and cannot enter temples, fetch water from the
