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Ssc SOCIAL STUDY CIRCLE di (ESTD
1982) www.dalitindia.com ssc@dalitindia.com *********************************************************************** |
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June 12, 2001
Caste Crusaders Lobby
for U.N. Scrutiny
ByRama
Lakshmi
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, June 11, 2001; Page A15
KHEECHA, India -- For generations, the untouchables of
Kheecha took extreme care not to get in the way of the upper-caste Hindus in
the village. They toiled as rope makers and farm workers for very low wages but
accepted their fate in silence.
Their code for survival was reflected in an ancient
village saying: The upper castes are like an elephant's foot. If you come in
their way, they will crush you.
Things looked as if they might improve a little last year,
when a regional group of activists arrived with the promise of land. After a
fierce court battle, the untouchables won rights to land that the upper castes
were occupying illegally. They sowed wheat and cumin seeds and waited for their
dreams to bloom.
But the upper castes fought back this February, bringing
in diesel engines and draining all the water from the village pond. As a
result, the untouchables' first crop failed.
"They wanted to teach us a lesson for daring to
possess land," said Babu Pasabhai, an elderly villager, as he sat in the
temple courtyard on a hot and dusty afternoon.
The untouchables -- or Dalits, as they are now called in
India -- may not know it, but they now have another ally fighting for them, one
with more clout than the regional group, capable of pleading their case in
far-flung cities. It is a coalition of Dalit groups and activists, lobbying for
inclusion of India's caste system on the agenda of a U.N. conference on racism
to be held in August in Durban, South Africa.
But the Dalits have a new, powerful adversary, as well:
their own government. India officially regards the issue of caste to be an
internal matter and does not want it to be made into an international cause.
The government will oppose inclusion of caste on the U.N. conference agenda on
the grounds that caste and race are not synonymous.
"This is a conference about racism. We believe that
by bringing caste we would end up diluting the real thrust of the
conference," said Soli Sorabjee, India's attorney general and a member of
the U.N. Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination. "Of course,
despite laws and constitutional provisions, caste discrimination still exists
in India. But social habits die hard."
The 3,000-year-old caste system is sanctioned by Hindu
theology, in which every person is assigned a rigid role at birth. Since
achieving independence in 1947, India has sought to overcome the inequities of
caste, outlawing untouchability and discrimination. A progressive constitution
mandates affirmative action programs for dalits in education, and quotas in
government jobs and political representation. Today, the country's largely
ceremonial presidency is held by a Dalit, K.R. Narayanan.
But the caste system has proved as unshakable as it is
oppressive. Attempts by Dalits to disturb the traditional social hegemony in
rural India are still met with large-scale violence, destruction of property
and sexual violence against women.
"Untouchability may be outlawed on paper but the
practice of social exclusion carries on in many forms," remarked
Chandrabhan Prasad, one of the country's leading dalit columnists. Today, about
two-thirds of the Dalit population is illiterate, and about half are landless
agricultural laborers. Only 7 percent have access to safe drinking water, electricity
and toilets.
While the Indian government acknowledges the problems, it
insists they are not racial. The government wants to avoid the international
visibility that the Durban conference would give to the caste issue. At one of
the preparatory meetings for the conference, an Indian diplomat unofficially
pleaded with the dalit coalition not to wash India's "dirty linen in
public."
But the pro-dalit lobbyists would like to avoid
"technical hairsplitting" and insist that caste discrimination in
India urgently needs international attention.
"Caste is India's hidden apartheid," said Martin
Macwan, 41, a Dalit leader who heads the group that fought for land in Kheecha.
He also leads the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights that is fighting the
U.N. battle.
"It concerns 160 million people in India who face a
daily dose of discrimination and exploitation. It is worse than the one against
Jews in the Nazi era or the black slavery," Macwan declared.
Dalit activists acknowledge that a victory at the U.N.
conference would mean more in symbolism than in substance. It may not end
deprivation and discrimination, but they hope that such a move would bring
India under direct U.N. scrutiny.
But back in the shaded village of Kheecha, Pasabhai said
he has lived long enough to know that laws and policies will do little to
change the situation for his community of 600 Dalits.
"There can be no solution for this on paper. The only
solution is to change people's minds," he said.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company