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Koregaon: DalitVictory Pillar

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Sangh Parivar

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* Of the 67 issues published till December 2014, 24 are available only in the office archives. B&W photo-copies of these issues will be provided. In view of a courtinjunction, copies of the October 2014 Bahujan Shraman Tradition special number will not be included in the collection till the final disposal of the case.

* The images shown here are for representation only. The actual product, including the binding and cover, may differ.

Now available: A collection of all issuesfrom May 2009 to December 2014*

Each issue of FORWARD Press is adocumentation of the aspirations ofthe Bahujans of India

Contact: Circulation Dept. Aspire Prakashan Pvt. Ltd.803/92, Nehru PlaceNew Delhi- 110019

Phone : 011-46538687, 7827427311E-mail : info@forwardmagazine.in

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A must for libraries of research and educationalinstitutions and for writers, intellectuals,

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A killer healthdepartment

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CAN THE JANATA DALBE RESURRECTED?

FEAR FOR YOUHAVE TO

Modis all-Hindu modelvillage scheme

Twenty-two stitches for drinking water

A master dissectorof Bihar society

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Leaning on the Victory Pillar

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PAGE 43THE NEWS THAT DIDNTMAKE THE NEWS

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ICCSR to conductresearch on OBCs

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The end of the Peshwai at the hands of the Mahars and Mangs

Vol. VII

Dr Silvia FernandesChair, Aspire Prakashan Pvt. Ltd.

Prabhu GuptaraPatron and Chief Advisor

Satyaveer ChakrapaniDirector and Advisor

Ivan KostkaEditor-in-Chief

Pramod RanjanConsulting Editor

Amrish HerdeniaAssistant Editor (English)

Amarendra YadavPrincipal Correspondent

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Abhay Kumar Dubey (New Delhi)Dilip Mandal (New Delhi)Vishal Mangalwadi (India) Gail Omvedt (Maharashtra) Thom Wolf (New Delhi)

Rajan KumarDesigner

Office : FORWARD Press803 Deepali, 92 Nehru Place, New Delhi 110019Tel. (011) 46538687Email: info@forwardpress.in

Printed, published and owned by Ivan Anthony Kostka and printed at M.P. Printers, B-220, Phase-II, Noida, UP - 201301 and published from 803 Deepali, 92 Nehru Place, New Delhi 110019

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the articles are those of the writers. The magazine willnot bear any responsibility for them.

JANUARY 2015No. 01 Bilingual

Forty years is a long time. In early 1974, at the

age of 22, I started my professional journalistic

career in Bombay. Among my very first pieces

was an article on the then new Dalit Panthers,

including a scoop interview with their founding

general secretary, J.V. Pawar. Then, in early 2014,

a mutual friend called from Mumbai and put

Pawar on the phone to me. Among his first ques-

tions: Do you have a copy of my interview?

As I wrote in my December editorial, At

FORWARD Press we constantly hold two truths intension: Indians are largely an ahistorical people

and Journalism is the first rough draft of history. In the case of this months

Cover Story on the small but significant Battle of Koregaon we are doubly for-

tunate the valiant Dalit soldiers were under British command in the final

Anglo-Maratha war; hence the battle was meticulously documented and a

memorial built to commemorate their victory over the Peshwas forces.

Secondly, the novelist and poet Pawar has turned out to be more than a journal-

ist; a true Ambedkarite, he has been documenting the post-Ambedkar history of

the Dalit movements. We welcome J.V. Pawar to the ranks of FP contributors

and trust he will keep writing for us.

Another contributor we welcome in this issue to FP is Tribal activist and

writer Gladson Dungdung. His detailed report on the beastly treatment of a

Tribal family in Jharkhand all because they dared to drink water from a

police station hand pump is part of the first rough draft of history of Indias

oppressed Bahujan peoples. Reading it, I felt the pain of the 22 stitches on the

head of the husband and felt for the whole family. The bravery of the wife in

preserving her blood-soaked sari gives me hope that even the poorest of the

poor seek self-respect and dignity.

Despite it being in the spotlight of the national media, Waseema Khans

report on the slaughter of 13 Tribal women in Chhattisgarh makes for blood-

curdling reading. However, the focus here is on the bestial preying upon poor,

illiterate Tribal women, many with little children, now orphaned. This is just

the latest case of how Tribals are treated in so-called tribal states, let alone in

other parts of the country.

(This times JAN MEDIA picks up this very incident to examine the

extremely lopsided coverage in a Hindi daily that claims to be the worlds high-

est circulating newspaper.)

These two reports, both involving Tribals, only help us understand what the

Sangh Parivar just does not, or refuses to, understand: Bahujans, especially SCs

and STs, do not need any allurement or threat in order to convert; all they need

is to be treated with love and dignity. On the other hand, allurements and/or

threats are usually required to drag people back to a home in which they never

felt welcome. That is assuming that Tribals and Dalits are part of the Hindu

home in the first place. Zahid Khan and Hussain Tabish analyze the recent

months revved-up ghar wapsi (homecoming) incidents. The common thread,

whether with Muslims or Christians, is that they are Dalits. Would the Sangh

Parivar consider organizing ghar wapsi for Kashmiri Muslims of Brahmin,

Rajput and khatri background? This exposes the casteist hypocrisy behind these

moves. The worse hypocrisy is of those in power who refuse to honour and

defend the fundamental right guaranteed by Article 25 of our Constitution

which they are sworn to uphold and defend.

Until next month Truthfully,

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NEW DELHI: Dalit Tamil writer Poomani has won the 2014 SahityaAkademi award for his historical novel Agnaadi. The novel covers aperiod of more than 170 years from the beginning of the 19th centuryand revolves around the lives of several families in the villages of Virud-hunagar district. The 1,200-page novel, which looks at caste conflicts inthe region, has already won the inaugural Gitanjali literary prize.

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NEW DELHI: Sheoraj Singh Bechain being presented withthe Rashtra Bhasha Gaurav Saman on 22 November 2014 atParliaments central hall, New Delhi, jointly by Dr SarojniMaheshi (president, Sansdiya Hindi Parishad), Urmil SatyaBhushan (president, Parichay Sahitya Parishad) and SantoshKhanna (secretary, Vidhi Bharti Parishad).

LUDHIANA: Functions were organized at different places in thecountry on Dr Ambedkars Parinirvan Diwas. Sukhbir Singh Badal,deputy chief minister of Punjab, was the chief guest at one suchprogramme in Ludhiana. (Turn to page 36 for details.)

WARDHA: Feminist magazine Streekaal will soon announce thewinner of the inaugural Savitribai Phule Samman for feminist criticism.The jury comprises Archana Sharma, Arvind Jain, Anita Bharti, HemlataMahishwar and Parimala Ambekar.

Sahitya Akademiaward for Dalit novelist

Streekaals Savitribai Phule award S

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J.V. PAWAR

o one has to make that effort to remember the importantdates in the life and struggles of Babasaheb Ambedkar. Itcomes to them naturally, be it a highly educated Ambedkariteor a simple Dalit villager. The dates have been etched in theirhearts. They eagerly wait for these days year after year. Consid-er 6 December, the day, in the year 1956, when Ambedkarbreathed his last. Millions of people visit Chaitya Bhoomi, inMumbai, in the first week of December to pay homage to him.Ambedkars birth anniversary in April is celebrated for up totwo months. A woman from a Maharashtra village beginspreparing for her journey to Chaitya Bhoomi 15 days inadvance. She visits her parents and braves the cold of the win-ter and the huge crowds as she arrives, carrying her baby inher hands, at the place where Ambedkar was cremated.

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The first day of the new year is no different. For mostpeople, a new years resolution and a newfound energy gohand in hand. For the rejected and the oppressed in India, 1January means much more. They find new strength to livewith dignity when they look back at that day when the Peshwarule came to an end. Under the Peshwas, they werent justuntouchables, they were unseeables. These rulers evencursed their shadows. They destroyed generations of Dalits.The first day of the year 1818 marked the end of Peshwa domi-nance as the British flag went up, thanks to the bravery ofMahar soldiers.

Captain Francis Staunton had 449 Mahars and a Matang,who were outcasts in the Peshwa-led Brahmanical society ofthe time. The huge army of the Peshwa was crushed by these450 soldiers. The army of the Peshwa fought for food, clothing,shelter for them, it was just another day at work. However, forthe untouchable soldiers, it was a fight for dignity. It was a fightagainst slavery under the Peshwa. The Peshwas numbers wereno match for the moral courage of the Mahar soldiers. Untilthe first day of the year 1818, these untouchables hadnt feltthat joy of defeating an entire social order that had reducedthem to slaves. It is proof that the people who have a dreamwill find a way of making it come true. Society, after all, is acollection of people with different mindsets, the few whonurture a dream and the many who live meaningless lives.

The Peshwas soldier was a free man. Unlike theuntouchables, he had never experienced oppression andslavery. The untouchables knew there is nothing worse thanthe darkness of slavery and nothing better than the light offreedom. These 450 men fought for freedom from theslavery at the hands of the Peshwas. They were not selfish orcunning, and hence commanded respect from the British,who built a victory pillar in the memory of the soldiers whosupported them. This pillar stands even today in Koregaon,the place where the battle took place, and the names of thebrave Mahar and Matang martyrs have been engraved on it.

AMBEDKARS VISIT TO KOREGAON ON 1 JANUARY 1927 MADEHIM THE BABASAHEB WEKNOW TODAY

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Ambedkars pilgrimage to KoregaonIt was on 1 January 1927 that Babasaheb visited Koregaon

for the first time. For the rest of his life, Babasaheb, who loved tosay we are not foxes but lions, visited this memorial for the li-ons almost every year. Now, on every New Years Day, hisfollowers throng to the battlefield where their ancestorsattained glory.

But on 1 January 1927, when Babasaheb spoke at Koregaon,he didnt just reflect on the bravery of the Mahar soldiers. Hetook the opportunity to attack the British governments ingrati-tude. The untouchables whose forefathers had fought bravelyand given their lives for establishing British rule were beingdenied recruitment in the army. He said this was a kind ofdeceit. Mahar soldiers fought the Peshwa because he and hispredecessors had treated them worse than dogs. It was to bringan end to the Peshwas inhuman ways that the Mahar soldiershad stood with the British. But then, instead of thanking them,the British had taken away their weapons and their right to jointhe army.

A little later, on 14 February 1927, the British governmentappointed Babasaheb as a member of legislative assembly ofBombay. Then from 19-20 March, he led the Mahad satyagraha.Babasaheb was no longer a common citizen, and theadministration, including the district collector and police, wasforced to show him respect. Thus that visit to the KoregaonVictory Pillar on 1 January 1927 paved the way for more massmovements. So, it was after that day, when Dr Ambedkar stoodnext to the pillar and spoke, that every untouchable came toknow who he was.

Since that day, every New Year has begun with a new zeal forsocial revolution. The tradition of meeting at Koregaon on 1January has continued unbroken. Soon the other anniversariesfollowed: the Kalaram Temple entry satyagraha on 2 March,

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The huge army of the Peshwa was crushed by these 450 soldiers. The army ofthe Peshwa fought for food, clothing, shelter for them, it was just another dayat work. However, for the untouchable soldiers, it was a fight for dignity. It was afight against slavery under the Peshwa. The Peshwas numbers were no matchfor the moral courage of the Mahar soldiers

12 STORYC O V E R

Mahad satyagraha on 19-20 March, Babasahebs birthanniversary on 14 April, Babasahebs conversion to Buddhismand rejection of Hinduism on 14 October, the Constitution Dayon 26 November, Babasahebs death anniversary on 6 December,the burning of the Manusmriti on 25 December. These are someof the dates Ambedkarites have not forgotten to this day.

What dishonours AmbedkarBut it is not all just about remembering; it is about remember-

ing in a way that honours Ambedkar and the martyrs ofKoregaon. An Ambedkarite makes it a point to visit thememorials. Unfortunately, they show up not as a follower ofBabasaheb but as a representative of their parties. They organizeopen-air meetings and promote their own selfish agendas,bringing disrespect to Babasahebs exhortation to organize. Beit in Koregaon or Chaitya Bhoomi, the truth is Ambedkaritesgather to remember his remarkable legacy. But the parties,taking them to be their mob, hold their meetings. This is an insultto Babasaheb. On the last Ambedkar death anniversary (6December 2014) members of two different Ambedkarite partiesgot into a fight.

In front of Koregaon pillar we see different groups conductingmeetings, each with their own agenda. This shows, more thananything else, that we arent organized. On that day, nearly twocenturies ago, 450 soldiers unitedly fought the Peshwas. All ofthem had one, common agenda. Today, we should cometogether and be organized, and truly honourBabasaheb and his legacy.

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J.V. Pawar, poet and novelist, was the founding general secretary of the Dalit Panthers.He is best known for his1969 novel Balidaan and Naakebandi his 1976 collection ofpoems, since translated and published in English as BLOCKADE. Among his many

books, he has devoted himself to documenting and analyzing the post-Ambedkar Dalitmovements in several volumes. A lifelong Ambedkarite, Pawar has been involved in

several Dalitbahujan social and political movements in Maharashtra

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But it is not all just about remembering; it is about remembering in a way thathonours him. An Ambedkarite makes it a point to visit the memorials.Unfortunately, they show up not as a follower of Babasaheb but as arepresentative of their parties. They organize open-air meetings and promotetheir own selfish agendas, bringing disrespect to Babasahebs idea of organizing

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The end of the Peshwai at the hands of theMahars and Mangs

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n 1796 Baji Rao II became the Peshwa ruler of thefractured Maratha confederacy. As historian AnirudhDeshpande has observed, Events proved him a trueson of a disgraced father. During his rule (1796-1818),the Marathas fought two wars with the British East IndiaCompany forces. These led to the sunset of the Marathaconfederacy and the noonday of the British forces incentral and western India.

Baji Rao II had been seething at being reduced to apuppet in Pune, and quietly scheming too to chase theBritish out of the land where he and his Brahmin prede-cessors had been de facto rulers for almost a century af-ter usurping power from the Maratha Bhonsale dynasty.But in 1817, the defection of his mercenary English

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commander Captain Ford and his troops to theBritish Resident Montstuart Elphinstone putpaid to his plans. He fled the capital of hisancestors with his Brahmin followers, whofeared that the end of the Peshwai would bring toan end their domination of Maharashtriansociety. The East India Company battalions wentafter the Peshwa and his army and defeatedthem in battles fought at Khadki, Yervada andKoregaon all in the Pune area. After watchingthe rout of his troops from a hill overlookingKhadki, Baji Rao II fled the battle, earning thederogatory nickname palputaa or the fleeingone. Only the battle of Koregaon is stillremembered, and even celebrated, today, in acountry that otherwise, officially, celebratesindependence from British rule.

The Battle of KoregaonKorygaom is a moderate sized village,

immediately overhanging the steep bank of theBeema; but owing to the immense beds of the In-dian rivers, which are never filled except duringthe rains, the channel occupied but a small partof the space between the banks, so that thevillage was 50 or 60 yards from the water. There isa mud wall which, at one time, probablysurrounded the village, but it is now full of largebreaches on the side next the river, and on theeast it is completely open, wrote James GrantDuff (1789-1858), a captain in the first regimentof Bombay Native Infantry, in A History of theMahrattas (Volume III), adding in the footnote,I write this description of the village fromrecollection; I have not seen it for seven or eightyears: not indeed since the morning afterCaptain Staunton evacuated it, when though Icarefully examined that scene of recent anddesperate conflict, I at that time had no intentionof publishing an account of it.

Korygaom (for the British then) or Koregaon (to-day), near Sirur and around 30 kilometres fromPune, was where the last Peshwa, Baji Rao II, madehis last-ditch effort to wrest back power from theBritish, more than a decade after he surrenderedsovereignty to the East India Company. On 31December 1817, Captain F.F. Staunton led 900 Com-pany troops, including a large number of Maharand Mang soldiers of the Bombay Army, from Sirurtowards Pune, where the troops were expectingreinforcement to defend a possible attack by thePeshwa and his army.

JANUARY 2015 |14

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The battalion commenced its march from Seroor on thelast day of the year, at eight oclock in the evening, Duff wrote. Itconsisted of little more than 500 rank and file, and was supportedby two six-pounders, well manned by 24 Europeans of theMadras artillery, under a sergeant and a lieutenant. It was also ac-companied by 300 of the newly raised irregular horse [cavalry],and the whole were under the command of Captain FrancisStaunton. Having marched all night, by ten oclock on themorning of New Years Day, Captain Staunton reached the highground above the village of Korygaom, on the Beema, where hebeheld the whole of the Mahratta horse, consisting of about25,000, on the opposite side of the river. He continued his marchtowards the bank, and the Peishwas troops believed that heintended to ford, but as soon as he had gained theneighbourhood of the village, he immediately took post in it.

The Peshwas infantry, consisting of the Arabs, Gosaeens andregular infantry, stormed the village. Many of the houses wereset on fire by a relentless shower of rockets. The village wasimmediately surrounded by horse and foot, and the stormingparty was supported by fresh troops. All access to the river wasspeedily cut off; Captain Staunton was destitute of provisions,and this detachment, already fatigued from want of rest and along night march, now under a burning sun, without food or wa-ter, began a struggle as trying as ever was maintained by theBritish in India. Every foot of ground was disputed, severalstreets were taken and retaken.

The Arabs had even managed to seize one of the guns and kill anartilleryman. Half of the European officers lay wounded, withouteven a drop of water to soothe their pain. Those still on their feetand fighting were seen collapsing due to dehydration. Some of theEuropeans in the artillery regiment even suggested that they shouldsurrender. However, there was soon a turning point. An injuredBritish officer led a contingent of native infantry and valiantlyregained control of the gun: the sepoys, thus led wereirresistible, the gun was retaken, and the dead Arabs, laterally lyingabove each other, proved how desperately it had been defended.

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However, there was soon a turning point. An injured British officer led acontingent of native infantry and valiantly regained control of the gun: thesepoys, thus led were irresistible, the gun was retaken, and the dead Arabs,laterally lying above each other, proved how desperately it had been defended

16 STORYC O V E R

When the night fell, the Peshwas troops scaled down the offensiveand the Company troops were able to obtain a supply of water toquench their thirst. Soon the firing ceased, and the Peshwas army wasnowhere to be seen until next morning, when Captain Stauntonordered his men to fire the guns at those still hovering round thevillage. The Peshwas army withdrew and that night, under the coverof darkness, Captain Staunton took the wounded with him to Sirur,where he arrived the next morning. The Company suffered 175casualties while the Peshwa lost 500-600 of his men.

Koregaons legacyLater, back in the battlefield, Koregaon, a 60-foot obelisk was

constructed to commemorate this feat of the Company troops. Themarble plaques in English along with Marathi translations adorningthe four sides of the monument declare one of the proudest triumphsof the British army in the East. But that means very little to even theBritish today, let alone their former colonial subjects. What is relevant,though, are the names of native casualties inscribed on the pillar:more than 20 end with the suffix -nac Essnac, Rynac, Gunnac used by untouchable Mahars and Mangs who served as soldiers.

R.V. Russell, the superintendent of Ethnography, Central Provinces,provides a peek into life under the Peshwas in The Tribes and Castes ofthe Central Provinces of India (1916): In Bombay a Mahar might notspit on the ground lest a Hindu should be polluted by touching it withhis foot, but had to hang an earthen pot round his neck to hold hisspittle. He was made to drag a thorny branch with him to brush out hisfootsteps, and when a Brahman came by had to lie at a distance on hisface lest his shadow might fall on the Brahman. Even if the shadow of aMahar or Mang fell on a Brahman he was polluted and dare not tastefood and water until he had bathed and washed the impurity away.

No wonder Koregaon is remembered today as the battle where a hand-ful of Mahars and Mangs (under British command) brought to an end thebrutal Brahmanical oppression sanctioned by the Peshwas. The last Pesh-wa, Baji Rao II, remained on the run in central India until he surrenderedto the East India Company troops in Mhow, near Indore, on 3 June 1818.He was then banished to Bithur, near Kanpur.The word Corregaum andthe obelisk were incorporated into the insignia of the 2/1 Bombay NativeLight Infantry, which later became the Mahar Regiment of the IndianArmy. The valour of the Mahar regiment was again in evidence in thebattles of Kathiawad (1826), Multan (1846) and the second Afghan War(1880). However, after some sepoys of the regiment joined the Indianmutiny against the British in 1857, the Mahars were barred from joiningthe army. Speaking during a function at a school run by the DepressedClasses Mission in October 1910, R.A. Lamb of the Bombay Governors Ex-ecutive Council pointed out that there were many names of Mahars whofell wounded or dead fighting bravely side by side with Europeans andwith Indians who were not outcastes and regretted that one avenue tohonourable work had been closed to these people.

Ambedkar, himself a Mahar born in Mhow to a retired army subedar,visited the Koregaon memorial on 1 January 1927. Today, thousands of Dal-its visit the memorial every year to commemorate the valour of the Maharswho helped overthrow the unjust Brahmanical rule of the Peshwas.

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JANUARY 2015 | FORWARD Press

SHAHNAWAZ KHAN

he recent get-together of the leaders of the parties that wereborn from the debris of the Janata Dal has led to speculationsabout reunification. Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav of the JDU,Laloo Prasad Yadav of the RJD, H.D. Deve Gowda of the JD (S)and Dushyant Chautala of the INLD met at the Delhi residenceof Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party supremo. Afterthe meeting, Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar announced thatthe Janata Dal parivar would reunite and position itself as analternative to both the Congress and the BJP. Poll statistics sug-gest that if this happens, there will be major changes in thepolitical landscape. But the question is whether the con-stituents of the erstwhile Janata Dal can come together? And ifthis happens, can it offer an alternative brand of politics?

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Before dwelling on these issues, let us recapVishwanath Pratap Singhs experiment that brought theJanata Dal to power and also how it broke up owing toits internal contradictions. On 11 October 1988,Vishwanath Pratap Singh turned a rebel and walked outof the Congress Cabinet. He cobbled together the JanataDal by bringing the Lok Dal, the Congress (S) and hisown Jan Morcha on a common platform. There werethree key reasons behind the Janata Dals success in cap-turing power. First, the serious allegations of corruptionagainst Rajiv Gandhis Congress government in theBofors case had angered people across the country.Second, on 1 February 1986, the locks of Babri Masjidhad been opened, angering the Muslims, who thenbegan looking for an alternative to the Congress. Third, anew, energetic leadership was emerging from the OBCs,particularly the Yadavs, in the two politically crucialstates of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. These three factorshelped the Janata Dal, led by V.P. Singh, capture theimagination of the people.

Now, if we juxtapose the political scenario of 1988with the one in 2014, we will discover that there is little,if any, possibility of the resurrection of the Janata Dal. Tobegin with, the parties that are planning to positionthemselves as an alternative to the BJP and the Congresshave a poor track record as far as fighting corruption isconcerned. Top leaders of these parties, including thosewho have been chief ministers, are themselves in thedock for graft. Laloo Prasad Yadav has been convictedand is barred from contesting elections. Hence, the lead-ers of the to-be-formed Janata Dal would have no moralright to talk of corruption. At the same time, barring theJDU, the top posts in all other parties are out of boundsfor the janata who dont belong to the families of theparty supremos. Even in the case of the JDU, nepotismmay not be palpable in the structure of the party organi-zation but it is very much there at other levels. It isapparent that the issue of leadership of the proposedJanata Dal would be a contentious one. It would be aherculean task to build unanimity on the party presi-dency and other important positions.

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18JANUARY 2015 | FORWARD Press

POLITICAL

ANALYSIS

THE CHANCES ARE SLIM, FOR ANY IDENTITY-BASED POLITICS CAN ONLY LASTSO LONG BEFORE IT IS SUBSUMED BY A BIGGER IDENTITY, AND THE PARTYSFRAGMENTS HAVE JUST SUFFERED THIS FATE AT THE HANDS OF THE BJP

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Then, the Janata Dal leaders had come to power intheir respective states courtesy of the support of theMuslims. But what did the Muslims get in return?Miserable life and communal riots. Nitish and DeveGowda have even run governments in coalition with theBJP. And Mulayam has been ruling Uttar Pradesh for thelast three and a half years with the tacit support of the BJP.Thus, one of the biggest vote banks of these parties hasgot disillusioned with them. If, in some pockets, theMuslims are still supporting these parties, it is onlybecause of the lack of an alternative.

Thirdly, the OBCs, whose sociopolitical identity Laloo,Nitish and Mulayam were claiming to establish, are nolonger under the sway of their respective parties. Theirparties no longer represent the aspirations of these castes.The reason is the BJPs success in building a widerHindutva unity through its social engineering. The BJPhas been promising to give the OBCs and the Dalits theirdue place in keeping with their self-respect. Another rea-son why a sizeable, decisive chunk of OBCs is backing theBJP is that for the first time, an OBC has become theprime minister of the nation. Thus, Laloo, Mulayam andNitish have lost their caste base as well.

If these parties are today in a pitiable state it is alsobecause they used the slogan of secularism only to garnerMuslim votes. They never seriously tried to infuse the val-ues of secularism into their caste-based supporters or tochange their mindsets. Once elections were done with,these parties shifted to the soft Hindutva mode so as tokeep the castes under their sway within the ambit of theSavarna-dominated Hindutvadi sociopolitical space. Thatis why, after the mid-1990s, the SP-BSP forgot the sloganMile Mulayam Kanshiram, Hawa mein ud gaye JaiShriram (We have got Mulayam and Kanshiram, Jai ShriRam has been blown away), which was their battle cryduring the days of the ascendancy of the Ram templemovement. They also never demanded abrogation ofArticle 341 of the Constitution, which would have enabledDalit Muslims to get reservations. These parties have fall-en between two stools of secularism and communalism.

Against this backdrop, the efforts to resurrect theJanata Dal seem to be more a desperate attempt of abunch of frustrated leaders to maintain their strangleholdover their caste base than a genuine initiative to provide aviable alternative to the people. The chances of success ofthis attempt are very slim. In any case, any identity-basedpolitics can only last so long before it is subsumed by abigger identity. Whether one likes it or not, the BJPhas managed to engineer just that. The time is up foran SP-RJD-JDU conglomerate.

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JANUARY 2015 |20

FORWARD PressANALYSIS

SHAHNAWAZ ALAM

he hidden criteria that seem to have been used toselect villages for adoption under the PrimeMinisters much-touted MP Model Village Schemehave raised suspicions that the real objective of thescheme is to further a political cause.

According to the news website Scroll.in, in UttarPradesh, which sent 71 BJP MPs to the Parliament,16 of the 20 villages picked for the scheme are thosewhich have no Muslims. Although it would be

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unfair to draw any conclusions from a survey that covered only20 of the 71 villages adopted by BJP MPs, it could be construedas indicative of a trend, especially, since the village Jayapur,adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself in his con-stituency Banaras, does not have a single Muslim resident. Onewould not be much off the mark in concluding that the selec-tion of all-Hindu villages is deliberate. BJP MP Hukum Singh,an accused in the communal violence in Kairana,Muzaffarnagar district, last year, has adopted an all-HinduSukhedi village and the pradhan of the village sees nothingwrong with it. Sanjeev Baliyan, MP who, as independentinvestigations revealed, was the prime conspirator behind theMuzaffarnagar communal violence has adopted the villageRasoolpur Jatav. Here, Naresh Kumar, the husband of the prad-han, not only believes that being a pure Hindu village isthe reason the MP adopted the village but isalso proud of it. It is thus clear that thescheme has been a well-thought-out strate-gy to direct government funds to and devel-op villages that have only a Hindu populaceor are predominantly Hindu.

Notwithstanding its claims of takingeveryone together, the Modi government isdoing exactly what it wants to do discrimi-nating on the basis of religion. But the ques-tion is what the BJP hopes to achievethrough this scheme. This question assumessignificance in light of the fact that the RSS widely believed to be holding the remotecontrol of the BJP makes any move onlyafter considerable deliberation, keeping itslong-term objectives in view.

In fact, the MP Model Village Scheme isaimed at benefitting the BJP and the Sanghat two levels. Firstly, even today, caste hierarchy is intact in vil-lages not only the intangible discrimination on the basis ofcaste but also the tolas or clusters of different castes, especiallyof those belonging to Dalit, OBC or EBC castes. This is reflectedin the political preferences of the villagers, too. For instance,people of different castes vote for different parties. In short, thesaffron brotherhood is well aware that if rural India is to bebrought under the sway of the BJP, it is imperative to dismantlethe OBC and Dalit politics that draws sustenance from the slo-gan of social justice, and this is possible only by bringing thevarious castes on one platform.

Now, it would be difficult to implement the plan of buildingideal Hindutvavadi unity in villages inhabited by people ofdifferent castes, with their inherent conflicting interests evenmore so, if the villages have Muslim residents too. So, why notstart with all-Hindu villages? This will also ensure the perpetuation of the Varna system. Development will reach theDalits and the OBCs on the basis of their caste identity.

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22JANUARY 2015 |FORWARD Press

Annihilation of caste would not be on the agendaat all. Varna-based discrimination would remainin place while at the same time, OBCs and Dalitswould be brought under the Hindutva umbrella.

According to a report prepared byAhmadabad-based Navsarjan Trust in associationwith three US-based organizations KrocInstitute for International Peace Studies(University of Notre Dame), University ofMichigan, and Robert F. Kennedy Center forSocial Justice & Human Rights 98 per cent ofthe Dalits in Gujarat are served tea by tea-stallowners in separate cups called Ram Patra. Thereport is based on interviews with 98,000 Dalitsof Gujarat. Here, it is important to note that alarge section of Dalits in Gujarat votes for the BJPin the name of Hindutva. It is this Gujaratmodel that the Sangh Parivar wants to imple-ment across the country through the MP ModelVillage Scheme.

The second objective of the scheme is to bringthe worldview of urban Indians, who form thecore of the BJP supporters, to the villages. This isan easily achievable given that the urban middleclass and lower middle class still stay in touchwith their ancestral villages. The Sangh knowsthat this will help residents of villages and citiesthink and behave alike, and will politically unifyrural and urban India. This is also a formulaimported from Gujarat, where, according toAchyut Yagnik, a well-known sociologist and akeen watcher of the Sangh Parivars politics, thedemonization of Muslims was used to obliteratethe difference in electoral preferences of villagersand urbanites. The Sangh and the BJP united theHindus of various castes by raising the spectre ofa Muslim takeover, and the villagers, who used tovote for the Congress, were forced to toe the lineof their BJP-voting urban counterparts. The sign-boards at the entrance of villages, declaring themas Hindu Grams (Hindu villages), are proof ofthis phenomenon. That was partly why commu-nal violence, which was hitherto an urban phe-nomenon, engulfed the villages too in 2002. Overthe last two years, villages have become the epi-centre of communal violence in Uttar Pradesh,be it Faizabad, Kosi Kalan (Mathura), Asthan(Pratapgarh) or Muzaffarnagar. Given this history,there is clearly more to the MP Model VillageScheme especially in Uttar Pradesh, which isfast becoming the hotbed of communal politics than meets the eye.

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ANALYSIS

The saffron brotherhood is well aware that

if rural India is to be brought under the sway

of the BJP, it is imperative to dismantle the

OBC and Dalit politics that draws

sustenance from the slogan of social justice,

and this is possible only by bringing the

various castes on one platform

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23

SHARAD JAISWAL

t a time when divisive Hindutva politics is on therise in the country, Asaduddin Owaisis All IndiaMajlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is trying toexpand its footprint outside Hyderabad. After anunexpected victory in two constituencies in therecent Maharashtra Assembly elections, MIM isreadying itself for spreading its wings in UttarPradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Delhi. Since elec-tions are round the corner in Delhi and Bihar, asense of urgency informs MIMs efforts to strikeroots in a hitherto-uncharted territory.

The leaders of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJPbelieve that once MIM makes an entry into thestate, it will provide the saffron outfit with an oppo-sition that shares its communal outlook and ideolo-gy. In fact, wherever it goes, MIM is set to strength-en the majoritarian communalism and enhance theacceptability of the BJP.

While the 80-year-old MIM has always been chargedwith fanning Muslim communalism in Hyderabad, itssupporters see it as an outfit capable of taking on anti-Muslim and radical Hindu communal organizations.

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U HAVE ASADUDDIN OWAISI AND THE BJPENTERED INTO A TACIT AGREEMENT TOTURN THE NATIONS POLITICS INTO ACONTEST OF RELIGIOUS FANATICS?

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Some recent political developments indicate that BJPand MIM are helping each other in spreading communal-ism in the country. Both the parties have been jointly run-ning the Nagpur Municipal Corporation since the elec-tions that took place last year. By absenting themselvesfrom a vote of confidence in the Maharashtra Assembly,the two MIM members indirectly supported DevendraFadnavis government. What is the real motive of theseparties? What is the ultimate objective of their politics? Apertinent question here is whether BJP and MIM haveentered into a tacit agreement to turn the nations politicsinto a bipolar, Hindu-communalism-versus-Muslim-com-munalism contest.

MIM is planning to field candidates in the DelhiAssembly elections. If that happens, the electoral battlefieldof Delhi may well witness a clash between Hindutva andNizam-e-Khalifa. This politics of communal polarization isbound to put on the back burner the fundamental issues ofconcern to the common man such as food, clothes, educa-tion, housing, employment and healthcare. One need notbe a rocket scientist to understand that majority andminority communalisms are two sides of the same coin.Both want to stifle democracy. However, Nehru hadprophetically said that majority communalism is much

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24JANUARY 2015 | FORWARD PressPOLITICS

M ajlis-E-Ittihad Muslimeen (or Council of Muslim Unity)was founded in 1927 as a federation of Muslim sectsand communities to support and advice the then ruler(Nizam) of Hyderabad. After the defeat of his razakars andthe merger of Hyderabad into the Indian Union, MIMremained dormant till about 1957, when it was revived bySultan Salahuddin Owaisi to back up your (Muslim) argu-ment with political muscle. In 1960, the MIM got 19 out of 30seats it contested in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad(MCH); in 1967, three MIM candidates were elected to thestate assembly; and in 1986, MIM was elected as the singlelargest party in the MCH. With the rise of the Telugu DesamParty in Andhra Pradesh, MIM predicted a division of non-Muslim votes in Hyderabad between TDP and Congress.Through its rabble-rousing, it aimed at polling a chunk of the35 per cent Muslim votes in the 1984 general elections andhas been winning the seat since. Muslims could be ralliedbehind MIM due to the perception of insecurity among thecommunity that arose from the series of communal riots inthe 1980s in the cow belt, along with the campaign for thedemolition of the Babri Masjid.

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A failure of all secular parties

more dangerous than minority communalism because the for-mer often wears the garb of patriotism and simple-mindedcommoners fall into its trap; by the time they realize their folly,it is too late.

There is nothing surprising in the news that MIM is plan-ning to try its luck in the Delhi Assembly polls. The recent spikein communal incidents in Delhi is evidence enough of somefixing. MIM may well open its account in some Muslim-domi-nated areas of the city. One doesnt know what strategy theparty proposes to employ in Delhi whether it will resort to itstime-tested formula of polarizing the Muslims or AsaduddinOwaisi has a new trick up his sleeve. In Maharashtra, the partyhad tried to forge a Muslim-Dalit alliance by raising the sloganof Jai Bheem, Jai Meem. MIM is known to concentrate onareas where the Muslim population is 20 per cent or higher.

The fact of the matter is that the political objectives of par-ties such as the BJP and the MIM are the same. Owaisi andthose of his ilk must remember that no one who militatesagainst the secular core of this country can hope to play a longinnings in politics. The Owaisis of the country are beingused to serve the ends of Hindutva and the BJP. Their utilitybegins and ends there.

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MIM gained its first significant victory outside Telangana in the2012 Nanded Municipal Corporation elections. MIM won 11 out of 81seats in the city where 30 per cent the population is Muslim. That was areaction to the arrest of innocent Muslim youths from Aurangabad,Malegaon and other places, and their implication in cases of terrorism.The election of Imtiyaz Jaleel from Aurangabad Central and WarrisPathan from Byculla, Mumbai, to the Maharashtra LegislativeAssembly is the continuation of the same trend.

After MIMs wins in these two constituencies in Maharashtra, aMuslim youth told this author: We are not scared of the rise of Hindunationalists and ready to face all the consequences. Nothing worsecan happen. We must now have our [Muslim] communitys demand.MIMs expansion through aggressive assertion and rabble-rousingshould be seen as a failure of all secular parties in safeguarding therule of law and checking Hindu nationalization of the state. MIM isthe mirror image of the Modi-ized BJP. As Modi is catering to the aspi-rations of the youth from the majority community, MIM is catering tothe aspirations of the Muslim youth. The disillusionment with MIMtoo will set in sooner rather than later, as it did with Nihal Ahmedspolitics in Malegaon. MIM fills the youth with the false pride of theglorious history of Muslim rulers in India. - IRFAN ENGINEER

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JANUARY 2015 |26

FORWARD PressREPORT

ZAHID KHAN

orth India has witnessed two related incidents in therecent past. First, in late August, at Asroi, about 30 kmfrom Aligarh, UP, around six dozen Christians werebrought back into Hinduism. In the second incidentin early September, some people returned to Hinduismfrom Islam in the Bukarra village of Khaniadhanatehsil, Shivpuri district, Madhya Pradesh. The shud-dhikaran (purification) of these persons was done inthe benign presence of the police and the media. TheSangh Parivar is elated over the two homecomings. InAsroi, as a bonus, the local church was converted into aShiva temple. Thus, besides humans, the place of wor-ship was also purified. The RSS and other radicalHindu organizations have termed this switching of

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religions not conversions but homecoming. It is clear that thesehomecomings are a part of the saffron brotherhoods strategy topolarize the nation on communal lines. Conversions are back onthe Sangh Parivars agenda and quite aggressively so.

What is of consequence is the fact that all the 72 people who leftChristianity and rejoined the Hindu fold at Asroi are Dalits of theValmiki caste. They had embraced Christianity about two decadesago. The neo-converts of Shivpuri are also Dalits, having adoptedIslam just in February this year. Obviously, the Sangh Parivar wasrattled by this development and the Hindu organizations weredoing everything they could to reconvert them. Their hard workbore fruit and ultimately, the misled people came back to theirhome. Such incidents are growing by the day. Dileep Singh Judeohad launched a formal campaign in Chhattisgarh to bring Christianconverts back into Hinduism. He coined the term ghar wapsi(homecoming). In Gujarat, Swami Aseemanand, who, at present, iscooling his heels in prison as an accused in the Samjhauta Expressbomb blast case, had also overseen a mega campaign to bring backTribal Christian converts into Hinduism in the Dang region of thestate. The campaign enjoyed the full backing of the erstwhileNarendra Modi government and ran for quite a while on a largescale. Besides these states, reports of homecomings are also pour-ing in from Jharkhand and Odisha two states with a substantialTribal population.

An objective analysis of these conversions would show that mostof the people who adopted Islam or Christianity were eitherdeprived Dalits or impoverished Tribals. The low social status ofthese castes and their members having to put up with the obnoxiousbehaviour of the so-called upper-caste people is no secret. Theupper, dominant castes treat them worse than animals. They facediscrimination at every step in their lives. They are not allowed toenter temples. They are exploited and repressed. Any resistance ismet with social boycott, compounding the problems of these peoplealready reeling under poverty, ignorance and deprivation.

In these circumstances, if a non-Hindu religious preacher evokeshope in them or if they themselves feel that they can lead a better,respectable life and break free from social oppression by adopting aparticular religion, they do get attracted to other religions. In north-eastern India, Christian missionaries, through their work in the fieldsof education and health, managed to win the admiration of the mar-ginalized Tribal communities. The humiliation the weaker sections ofHindus have to face every day has been an important factor in themtaking refuge in Buddhism or Christianity. Moreover, our Constitutionguarantees religious freedom to every citizen.

A constitutional rightBesides being mentioned in the preamble of the Constitution,

religious freedom is also part of the chapter on fundamental rights.Article 25 guarantees Freedom of conscience and free profession,practice and propagation of religion. Thus the Constitution notonly gives citizens the right to practise the religion of their choicebut also to change their religion. But the forces of Hindutva brand

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any change in religion as forcible conversion. Their propa-ganda machine proclaims that the coversions are an interna-tional conspiracy and that the Hindu religion is in dangerbecause of them. The stray incidents of conversions areblown out of proportion, especially the forcible dimension.It doesnt matter at all if the person concerned has convertedto another religion out of his own free will.

For the self-appointed custodians of Hinduism, conver-sions are an issue but caste-based exploitation, repression,social boycott and discrimination are not. To take theinstance of Bukarra village, the Dalits there were leading mis-erable lives. They were not getting jobs under MNREGA, andPDS foodgrains were being denied to them. Though theMadhya Pradesh government had allotted agricultural landto 22 Dalit families of the village, the musclemen of theupper castes never allowed them to till their fields. They weredriven away whenever they tried to take possession of theland that was legally theirs. But these basic problems of theDalits did not concern the Sangh Parivar.

The Dalits and the deprived do not need gods and reli-gion. They need two square meals a day and a life ofdignity. If they got these, why would they contem-plate converting to other faiths?

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Zahid Khan is an independent journalist. He is the author of Azad Hindustanmein Musalman and Sangh ka Hindustan

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T he Madhya Pradesh government has promulgated an anti-conversion law. Under its Shabri campaign, the Sangh hadbrought back many converted tribal Christians into Hinduism.In the Shivpuri district of the state, four persons were arrestedfor violation of the Freedom of Religion Act. Of them, two Maniram and Tularam were already facing prosecution underthe same Act. The police later registered cases under sections 4and 5 of the Act and section 188 of the IPC against Maniramswife Makho and her son Keshav, alias Kasim. After Maniramand Tularam were released on bail, the saffron organizations re-inducted them into Hinduism. Preliminary investigations by thepolice revealed that the families of Maniram and Tularam wereplanning to settle elsewhere after selling their land. The super-intendent of police, M.S. Sikarwar, has constituted a SIT toprobe the entire incident. The police also checked their bankaccounts but did not find evidence of any unusual transaction.Keshav, alias Kasim, says that he had decided to change his reli-gion on his own. Why, he asks, should he not adopt a religionthat gives him a chance to live with his head held high and betreated like a human? - HUSSAIN TABISH

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he city of the Taj is in the news these days. On 8December, in the Ved Nagar area of the city,around 150 members of 57 Muslim families wereallegedly converted to Hinduism at a functionorganized by RSS associates Bajrang Dal andHindu Jagran Manch. The neo-converts have beenliving in the slum cluster in Ved Nagar for the last15 years or so and make a living by scouring thegarbage dumps for saleable things. Most of themhail from different districts of West Bengal.

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When the news about their conversion was published in news-papers the next day, all hell broke loose. Before the newsappeared in the papers, even the converted people did not knowthat they had switched religion. They protested and said that theyhad been converted forcibly or had been lured with incentives.

According to Ismail, one of the converts, for the last month orso, activists of the Hindu Jagran Manch had been talking to theMuslim residents of the slum and persuading them to becomeHindus. A day before the conversions, the activists told them that acamp was being organized in their area for making voters IDcards, and that Aadhaar cards and ration cards would also be givento those who didnt have them. The foundation stone of a Kali tem-ple would be laid on the occasion, said the activists. The offer ofvoters ID cards and ration cards was too tempting to turn down,and almost all of them reached the designated place. To their dis-may, there was no such camp. Instead, a religious function wasunderway to mark the beginning of the construction of the Kalitemple. The men were made to wear skullcaps and everyone wasasked to join in the havan. They joined in, albeit unwillingly.Afterwards, photographs of them holding idols of Kali were taken.When some women objected to being photographed, they werepacified by promises of money in return.

Next day, when the newspapers published reports of 200Muslims embracing Hinduism, the slum dwellers were shocked.The women started wailing while the men were angry. Ismail him-self went to the local police station and got a case of forcible andfraudulent conversion registered. Though the names of the peoplewho were present at the havan were mentioned in the complaint,the Hindutva organizations, very shrewdly, managed to savethemselves. Only Kishore Valmiki, a local Bajrang Dal activist, andsome of his associates were named as accused in the FIR.

Ajju Chauhan, district president of Bajrang Dal, dismissed thecharge that force or deception was used to persuade theMuslims to convert. These persons had genuine faith in Hindureligion and they have become Hindus out of their own free will.Their ancestors were also Hindus, Chauhan said. The con-verts, however, insist that they dont follow the Hindu faith.They were deceived into joining the havan and were declaredHindus. One of the victims of the fraud, Sufia, said that her fami-ly had been Muslim for the last several generations. I am notaware if my ancestors were Hindus at any time, she said.Another woman Sakina recited Ayats from the Quran and saidthat there was a copy of the holy book at her house. I did not

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THE CONVERTS OF THE VED NAGAR AREA DISCOVERED THEY HADSWITCHED RELIGION WHEN PHOTOS OF THEM HOLDING IDOLS OF KALIAPPEARED IN THE NEWSPAPERS

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want to change my religion, Sakina said. I had gone therefor getting a ration card. Since most of the people perform-ing the havan were Dalits from the neighbourhood, peopleshe knew, she joined in.

The issue soon turned into a row. The Muslims of the cityopposed this forcible conversion and demanded arrest of theaccused. According to Sulabh Mathur, SSP of Agra, many peo-ple have been made accused in the case. A magisterialenquiry has also been ordered. He said that strict actionwould be taken against those found guilty.

Champat Rai, international vice-president of the VishwaHindu Parishad, who described this conversion as a home-coming, was looking at bringing back one lakh such Muslimsand Christians, whose ancestors were Hindus, into the Hindufold by the end of last year. VHP sources claimed that therewas nothing new in such conversions. The VHP organizessuch homecomings of Muslims and Christians every year.In 2013, according to him, the VHP had held similar functionsat Badaun, Bijnore, Bareilly, Kasganj, Shahjehanpur, Mainpuriand Firozabad districts in which thousands of Muslims andChristians were brought back into Hinduism.

The issue rocked Parliament too. From 11 Decemberonwards, the opposition parties did not allow Parliament tofunction and demanded the prime ministers explanation.The government, however, disassociated itself from the con-troversy. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Venkaiah Naidusaid that the government was contemplating enacting ananti-conversion law. This was, however, opposed by themembers of the opposition parties who said that there shouldbe no ban on conversions. According to these parties, itshould be left to individuals and families to decide whichreligion they want to adopt and practise.

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Hussain Tabish is an FP correspondent. He is also a human rights activist and hasresearched the language of media

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Though the names of the people who were present at the havan werementioned in the complaint, the Hindutva organizations, very shrewdly,managed to save themselves. Only Kishore Valmiki, a local Bajrang Dalactivist, and some of his associates were named as accused in the FIR

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NEW DELHI: BJP MP Udit Raj organized a SC-ST rally at RamlilaMaidan on 8 December. The rally was addressed by Union Ministerand former BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Apna Dals Anupriya Pateland many prominent BJP leaders. BJP President Amit Shah was alsoinvited to the programme but he was not present. Speaking at thefunction, Gadkari said that the opposition parties only used Dalitsto serve their political ends while we are committed to theirprogress and growth. Udit Raj presented a ten-point charter ofdemands of Dalit-Tribals, including reservations in promotions andstrengthening of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention ofAtrocities) Act, 1989. Udit Raj said that this is the right time forgetting our demands accepted, although we have already lost somuch time. Around 5,000 people were present at the rally, which isbeing seen as an attempt to associate Dalits with the BJP. -FP Desk

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NEW DELHI: On 2 December, around15,000 labourers from different parts ofthe country and activists took out a rallyand held a public meeting under thebanner of Abki Baar Hamara Adhikar(This time, our rights). A number ofpeoples organizations lent support to thisprotest against the BJP governmenttinkering with the MNREGA, the so-calledreforms in the labour laws and changesin the Right to Education Act. Representa-tives of many peoples organizations,including Aruna Roy, Medha Patkar andNikhil Dey, led the protest. Annie Raja ofNFIW, Kavita Krishnan of AIPWA and MPsD. Raja (CPM), Ali Anwar (JDU) andManishankar Aiyyar (Congress) wereamong those who spoke at the publicmeeting. The peoples organizations helda workshop at the Ambedkar Bhawan,Jhandewalan, for two days (30 November-1 December) followed by the rally atJantarMantar. -FP Desk

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Labour organizations denounce reforms

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PATNA: The Sankhyapati Bhagidari Party took out a march fromKargil Chowk to Dakbangla square on 23 November to protest thehumiliation of Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and burnt an effigyof Manu. Suryoday Paswan, president of the party, said that Manuslaws were the springboard for casteist discrimination and Aryan-non-Aryan division. -FP Desk

PATNA: How good a writer is depends on the structure of hisstories and his capacity to communicate. It also depends onhow well he can create a picture with words. Narak Masiha, anovel of Bhagwandas Morwal, meets these criteria. Morwal hasa powerful pen, said well-known Hindi critic NandkishoreNawal at a function held during Patna Book Fair for the releaseof Morwals novel. He chaired the function, and along witheconomist Shaival Gupta and Ushakiran Khan, released thebook from the main stage of the fair on 14 November. Manycultural activists, including Avdesh Preeti, Vinod Anupam,Poonam Sinha, Firoz Mansoori, Pushparak, Jaiprakash, Vineetand Aneesh Ankur, were present at the function organized bythe cultural organization Bagdoor. -Arun Narayan

NEW DELHI: The ICCSR has launched a major project for research on the backwardclasses movement. Under the two-year project, the OBC movement and its impact onpolitics, literature and on the process of social development in India would be studied.The project director and a professor in Osmania University, S. Simhadri said, Under thisICCSR-funded project, research would be conducted on the OBC movement andpolitics in 12 states and on anti-caste OBC thinkers like Buddha, Phule, Periyar, NarayanGuru and VP Mandal. As part of this project, a national seminar on OBC politics in NewDelhi has been proposed for February next year. -Arun Kumar

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UQ UA protest over vacant teaching posts

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NEW DELHI: The Delhi Universityadministrations indifference towards filling upteaching positions in the reserved quota cameunder fire from teachers and studentsorganizations holding a joint demonstration on14 December at Jantar Mantar. MPs of BJP,Congress, CPI and CPM also joined the protest.Addressing the protestors representing DelhiUniversity Teachers Association (DUTA),Academic Forum for Social Justice, SC/STTeachers Association and All India BackwardStudents Parliament, CPM MP Sitaram Yechurysaid that he would meet the Union HRD Ministerwith the demand that the roster system ofappointments in the varsity be improved. He saidhe would also raise the issue in the Parliament.BJP MP Udit Raj said, We have been strugglingon this issue for a long time and we would contin-ue our battle. Congress MP Manishankar Aiyaralso expressed Congress commitment to the pol-icy of reservation. DUTA has forwarded amemorandum containing its demands to theUnion HRD Minister Smriti Irani. -FP Desk

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NEW DELHI: A programme was organized by the Akhil Bharatiya Asamana-ta Virodhi Manch in the law faculty campus of Delhi University on 27November, the death anniversary former prime minister Vishwanath PratapSingh, the pioneer of social justice and the messiah of the OBCs. Speaking atthe function, Professor Hansraj Suman said that the battle for social justicemust be fought right from the streets up to the educational institutions. SurajYadav said that it was because of great men like VP Singh, who usedreservations as a weapon for bringing about social justice, that today, Dalit-OBC students, who once did not have even the right to study, are beingappointed to top posts. President of All India Backward Students ForumJitendra Yadav, Dr Pravesh, Mohammed Abu Tariq, Suraj Mandal, SatendraThakur and others spoke at the function. Prof K.P. Singh Yadav delivered thepresidential address while Ratan Kumar was the moderator. President ofLaw Faculty Students Union Brijesh Yadav led a team comprisingChandraprakash Kapoor, Upendra Kumar and Dharmaveer Yadav Gaganin organizing the function. Besides them, Jagdish Saurabh, Ram Ekbal,Ashish Magan and Harminder Singh were also present. -Jagdish Saurabh

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NEW DELHI: According to K.G.Balakrishnan, former chief justice of theSupreme Court and chairman of NationalHuman Rights Commission, society cangrow only if it draws inspiration from itsgreat leaders. He was speaking at a seminarorganized jointly by Dalit Tirth IsthanUtthan Nyas and Babu Jagjivanram KalaSanskriti Evam Sahitya Academy on the eveof the Constitution Day at the ConstitutionClub.

On this occasion, T. Tethan, Rajesh Bagga,Kamaljeet Singh Soyi, Suresh Rathore, SadhviBahan Prachi, Purnima Vidhyarthi, ManojGorkila, Suraj Bhan Kataria, Devendra Vaditi,O.P. Yadav and Dr Sukhdev Hoi werepresented with national awards 2014 namedafter Dalit personalities.. In attendance wereUnion Minister of State for Social JusticeVijay Sampla, former Union Minister and MPDr Satyanarayan Jatia, former UnionMinister Dr Sanjay Paswan, Nepalese MPJiwan Pariyar, Indresh Kumar and Anita Arya.A large number of journalists, litterateurs,artistes and former MPs and ministers fromall over the country also attended thefunction. - Surajbhan Kataria

U SUAmbedkar memorial to be built in Mhow

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MHOW (Madhya Pradesh): Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan has urged the Ministry of Defence to hand over the land thatsurrounds the Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar memorial in Mhow. The stategovernment wants 4.52 acres of land around the memorial in Ambedkarsbirthplace and is ready to hand over an equal area of revenue land to theministry in return. A large number of people assemble on this piece of landon 14 April, the birth anniversary of Ambedkar, every year. There is no otherappropriate place for the grand memorial that the state government plansto build. The Madhya Pradesh government also plans to organizeAmbedkar Mahakumbh in Mhow and Ravidas Mahakumbh in Ujjain.Many Dalit organizations have welcomed the move of the stategovernment. -Hussain Tabish

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any programmes were organized in different parts of thecountry on 6 December 2014, the 58th death anniversary ofBabasaheb Ambedkar. In Ludhiana (Punjab), a functionwas organized under the auspices of Bharatiya ValmikiDharma Samaj (BVDS) at Guru Nanak Bhawan. Sukhbir

Singh Badal, deputy chief minister of Punjab, was the chief guest. Dr DevSingh Advaiti Maharaj, national chief of BVDS, garlanded a statue ofAmbedkar. Speaking on the occasion, Badal said that Valmiki Tirthwould be built in Amritsar at a cost of Rs250 crore and that in Ludhiana,the construction of Ambedkar Bhawan had already begun.

In Bhagalpur (Bihar), Bihar Pradesh Dalit-Mahadalit Yuvak Sanghcelebrated the day as Sankalp Diwas. At dawn, the Ambedkars statue atAmbedkar Chowk, near the railway station, was garlanded. Later in theday, a seminar was organized at the Ambedkar and Social WorkDepartment of the Tilkamanjhi Bhagalpur University. The seminar wasinaugurated by A.K. Rai, pro-vice-chancellor of the university while Dalitthinker Dr Vilakshan Ravidas chaired it. In Delhi, a function was organ-ized at Mansarovar Hostel, University of Delhi, by the Mansarovar HostelStudents Union. Many intellectuals, Ambedkarite thinkers and researchstudents were present. In Basti (Uttar Pradesh) hundreds of people par-ticipated in a candle march organized on the eve of Parinivan Diwas.They shouted Buddham Sharnam Gacchami and Jai Bheem. Themarch was led by Ram Prasad Arya of BAMCEF. At Narnaul (Haryana),the day was celebrated by Haryana Anusuchit Jati Janjati KaramchariKalyan Sangh with gusto. Retired Tehsildar Lalaram Nahar was the chiefguest while B.S. Soonthwal chaired the function.

In Lucknow, Governor Ram Naik and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadavoffered flowers on the urn containing the ashes of Babasaheb. Addressingthe function held on the Ambedkar Mahasabha premises at Vidhan SabhaMarg, Naik said that Ambedkar had carried out the daunting task of draft-ing of the Constitution, adding that he had the good fortune of seeing Dr.Ambedkar as a child. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said Ambedkar was amessiah of the Dalits and Backwards. On this occasion, the governor felici-tated Sukesh Rajan, Dalit entrepreneur and vice-chairman of DICCI. TheDr Bhimrao Ambedkar Ratna award was conferred on Dalit student SakshiVidhyarthi. Among those who were present on the occasion were Dr LaljiNirmal, president of the Mahasabha, minister Rajendra Chaudhary, formerDGP Shriram Arun, former IGP S.R. Darapuri, president of Kinnar SanghSonam Singh Yadav, theatre personality Shyam Kumar and VirendraKumar, president of Akhil Bharatiya Picchda Varg Karmachari Mahasangh.

-Rajesh Manchal, Om Sudha, Jagdish Saurabh, Kumar Sen, Sanjay Mann, Ankit Pal

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t was seven in the morning. On the way back fromLatehar, our team had reached a village called Gaadi. Itis located in the Barwadih police station area ofJharkhands Latehar district, northeast of Ranchi. Wesaw a man in his 30s sitting on a platform. He waslooking morose. When we got talking, he told us thathis name was Nagendra Singh and he was a Chero trib-al. There were 22 stitches on his head. These stitcheswere the price he had to pay for using the hand pumpat a police checkpoint near the Betla sanctuary. Can aperson be punished so severely in a free country fortrying to get some water to drink? It was unbelievable.

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We were shocked and angry. Beyond doubt, it was ashameful and condemnable incident. We sought detailsfrom Nagendra. Initially, he was surprised. He could notbelieve that a group of strangers could be intere