India: Is Growth Coming at Expense of Development

...further...

I mean .. take the `untouchables` who are agricultarists (now I understand why the growth of agriculture is 2.7%), are 16% of the population. Muslims are another 14-15% so that makes 30-31% of the entire population. How many are the rebels in nagaland, mizoram, tamil nadu, bihar and stuff in 19 states? Perhaps another 10-15%%? So that`s 45% all taken together.

Hindoostan shining ... sure ... I believe it ... with half of the population excluded in this dark and dank morass ...

#81 zeemax

Wow, your knowledge is soooo deep. So indian farmers all dalits? This is amazing news. Please all the indian newspapers a note about this. None of them know anything about this !
Stupid idol worshippers, dont know anything about their own country.

Also, hindutva people are all brahmins, right? Why not check up on Narendra Modi`s community background. You might get a great surprise.

And there are 15% muslims (why stop there - why not just say there 100% potential muslims :-) in india? Well, facts are a small and irrelevant issue in all of this.

BTW, what opportunities are there for disadavantaged groups in your islamist paradise? oh, I forgot, there are no disadvantaged groups under islam. Everything is perfect and everyone is equal. But somehow all of your leaders are from privileged classes vs. our Lalloo Yadav or Mayavati. Oh, I forgot, that is allahs will.

Re: # 81

Zeemax,

Untouchables = agriculturalists => growth rate of 2.7% !!

Thank you for the amusement.

Pmishra #82,

Why would something that someone from Pakistan writes online rattle you this much ?
Also, why would you even begin to compare India as it stands now (and its relatively
clear trajectory), to Pakistan, which is where it is right now ? By its own choice,
Pakistan has remained a deeply insecure state, suffering from a variety of collective neuroses. Let it be.

Anyone have any thoughts on Chidambaram`s new budget ?

Ref paulose #71

[....I hope to God these 5 Christian states- Kerala, Goa, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland – don’t catch the Brahmin disease.]

Kerala has 19% Christian population. (http://www.censusindia.net/religiondata/Summary%20Christians.pdf) I suppose in your twisted logic, that makes it a Cristian state. Muslims form 24.7% of Kerala. Why don`t you try converting some of those members of The True Faith? I bet you don`t have the b@lls for that.... or, they wouldn`t be in recognizable shape after your first conversion in Malabar.

How about moving to Jammu & Kashmir for your conversion activities? Christians form a pathetic 0.2% of the state`s population.

If the rest of India just pisses, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland would be flooded. Anyway, those people are busy using drugs so adding Jesus to the mix ain`t doing anything too dangerous to their mental health.... their brains are already fried.

By the way, I keep hearing about Jesus` Second Coming. Does that mean that so far he has had sex only once? Or does that mean he has been steadily f@*king the Christian population for the last 2000 years and there is no let-up until he ejaculates?

If your sister has a child when her husband is away working as a sanitation worker in the Middle East, would that make your nephew the next Jesus? Because, that is the story Mary peddled and you guys bought.

As to Goa, the Goan Christians are highly caste conscious. As my Goan Christian (Brahmin converts... forced, that is, by the Portuguese) friends tell me, they marry either Hindu brahmins or among the Brahmin converts. No need for a low-caste momofuku like you to look for a Goan bride. In India, CASTE RULES! And I, as a Brahmin, RULE OVER YOU!!

Deal with that!

Reverse discrimination has started in India. Brahmins are now the new victims of caste violence.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,12559,1505978,00.html

Villagers fall victim to India`s caste war


Brahmins and Dalits, at the top and the bottom of Hindu society, seek political alliance to fight `Yadav Raj`

Randeep Ramesh in Kannauj

Tuesday June 14, 2005

The Guardian

Suresh Chandra Pandey`s mutilated body was discovered more than a year ago, less than half a mile from his mud and stone house in the sleepy village of Nunnar, some 220 miles south-east of Delhi.

It was a violent execution-style killing; the 50-year-old farm labourer was hung up, shot in the chest and finally had his arms removed from the elbow joints.

Everyone knows who the murderers are, say his family, but the killers have not been brought to justice. The police, the local administration and the local MP will not lift a finger to help, they add.

``They are all from the same caste. They are all Yadavs and they control everything here,`` said his wife, Annadevi, 40. ``They have left me with nothing and my children with no father. We are just poor people.``

Villagers say the gruesome attack was a ``warning`` not to challenge the Yadav caste, the local land-owning elite.

``Suresh had argued with some Yadavs before a wedding in our village. That is why they killed him,`` said Pandey`s elder brother, Ashwani. ``We are being told not to fight back.``
Pandey was a Brahmin, traditionally placed at the top of India`s society and revered as priests and teachers. His alleged killers are Yadavs, once cow farmers, whose land holdings and cohesive ethnic identity have today made them politically powerful.

In another incident an upper caste man, Rupendra Singh, from Nagla village in Kannuaj district, was shot dead in front of his mother in a dispute over 11 acres of land. Again, his alleged killers are Yadavs.

In the past, tales of upper caste atrocities were commonplace in India. So a murder of a Brahmin by a Yadav would have been seen as a reprisal by an oppressed community for some bloody, unwarranted attack.

But the middle caste has risen in India, fuelled by a state-sponsored affirmative action programme and some penetrating land reforms, especially in the ``cow belt`` that stretches from Delhi to Calcutta.

In southern Uttar Pradesh, an outbreak of Sicilian-type violence has raged for more than a year in and around the sunflower fields of India`s most populous state, leaving 140 dead. Most victims were either Brahmins, at the top of Hinduism`s hierarchy, or Dalits (``untouchables``), found at the bottom.

Both these communities say they are now in the sights of the lower-middle orders of Hindu society. In the towns and villages, Brahmins and Dalits can be found joining hands across often centuries of caste animosity and prejudice to fight ``Yadav Raj`` (Yadav rule).
Not far from Nunnar in the unpaved lanes of Kasawa, there is evidence of a caste war being fought. Dalit homes have been destroyed, their walls smashed until the roofs collapsed. A local Brahmin, Neeraj Mishra, who came to the aid of the untouchables was beheaded.

Mishra`s, elder brother, Munish, said the trouble started during last year`s parliamentary elections, ``when the Yadavs came here in cars with guns. They stopped people from voting and my brother and two Dalits protested. For that they were killed.``

Although 2,000 Dalits live in Kasawa, none could remember what happened last year in the town. All appear too terrified of speaking out for fear of reprisals.

Munish Mishra said a political spat quickly spiralled out of control, with shoves, blows and finally bullets being exchanged. In the ensuing violence a Yadav was shot dead, the Dalit homes smashed and Dalit women raped.

Neeraj Mishra was allegedly picked up a day later by police, accompanied by a gang of Yadav farmers. His headless torso was fished out of a river 24 hours later.

``There is no law except that of the jungle,`` his brother said. He said it was now too dangerous for political parties which draw their support from the lowest and highest ends of Hindu society to campaign openly in the village. ``The Yadavs behave like the mafia here. They do what they want and nobody stops them.``

The nearby Yadav village of Kabirganj, has a concreted road and electricity. Here, there is little regret about last year`s events. ``They started it by firing on our people,`` said Ram Prasad Yadav, 55, a farmer.

Allegations that Yadavs have persecuted other castes is denied by state ministers. ``There have been no complaints of this kind. There may be village enmity, but I assure you that these type of incidents do not exist in Uttar Pradesh,`` said Ashok Bajpai, the minister of agriculture.

Uttar Pradesh, say rival politicians, is now the personal fiefdom of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the chief minister of the state and leader of the Samajwadi (Socialist) party. He is accused of favouring his own community above all others.

A £5m airstrip capable of handling a Boeing 737 is being built in Mr Yadav`s birthplace of Safai, a village in western Uttar Pradesh. Mr Yadav has also been criticised by the parliament for attempting to divert £250,000 of development funds for his birthday celebrations. With a population of 170 million, Uttar Pradesh contains 8% of the world`s poor.

Caste once identified a person`s occupation but in today`s India it is more to do with birth than work. ``In many contexts, caste today is really just about who you can or cannot marry. In that sense it is pretty tribal,`` said Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta of Delhi`s Centre for Policy Research.

In the cities, caste identities can be concealed merely by altering a surname and disguising an accent. But in some of the country`s biggest states, such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which are predominately rural, caste loyalties stubbornly persist.
In Uttar Pradesh the Samajwadi party rests upon attracting the lower-middle caste vote and the Muslim electorate, a base of 35% of the population. Brahmins and Dalits in Uttar Pradesh make up roughly the same amount of voters.

Last week India`s most prominent Dalit political leader, Mayawati, launched a drive to recruit Brahmins - once seen as her ultimate political foes - to her party. She told a crowd of 30,000 upper caste voters in Uttar Pradesh`s state capital, Lucknow, that she would treat them with respect, and appealed for their votes.

Chandra Bhan Prasad, a Dalit activist who first floated the idea of an alliance with Brahmins, said such coalitions were a sign of political maturity. ``Democracies have historically flourished by defeating the landowning classes. In Uttar Pradesh that now means taking on the Yadavs.``

Another article on reverse discrimination

http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/may/23franc.htm

Are Brahmins the Dalits of today?

Francois Gautier | May 23, 2006 | 16:41 IST

At a time when the Congress government wants to raise the quota for Other Backward Classes to 49.5 per cent in private and public sectors, nobody talks about the plight of the upper castes. The public image of the Brahmins, for instance, is that of an affluent, pampered class. But is it so today?

There are 50 Sulabh Shauchalayas (public toilets) in Delhi; all of them are cleaned and looked after by Brahmins (this very welcome public institution was started by a Brahmin). A far cry from the elitist image that Brahmins have!

There are five to six Brahmins manning each Shauchalaya. They came to Delhi eight to ten years back looking for a source of income, as they were a minority in most of their villages, where Dalits are in majority (60 per cent to 65 per cent). In most villages in UP and Bihar, Dalits have a union which helps them secure jobs in villages.

Did you know that you also stumble upon a number of Brahmins working as coolies at Delhi`s railway stations? One of them, Kripa Shankar Sharma, says while his daughter is doing her Bachelors in Science he is not sure if she will secure a job.

``Dalits often have five to six kids, but they are confident of placing them easily and well,`` he says. As a result, the Dalit population is increasing in villages. He adds: ``Dalits are provided with housing, even their pigs have spaces; whereas there is no provision for gaushalas (cowsheds) for the cows of the Brahmins.``

You also find Brahmin rickshaw pullers in Delhi. 50 per cent of Patel Nagar`s rickshaw pullers are Brahmins who like their brethren have moved to the city looking for jobs for lack of employment opportunities and poor education in their villages.

Even after toiling the whole day, Vijay Pratap and Sidharth Tiwari, two Brahmin rickshaw pullers, say they are hardly able to make ends meet. These men make about Rs 100 to Rs 150 on an average every day from which they pay a daily rent of Rs 25 for their rickshaws and Rs 500 to Rs 600 towards the rent of their rooms which is shared by 3 to 4 people or their families.

Did you also know that most rickshaw pullers in Banaras are Brahmins?
This reverse discrimination is also found in bureaucracy and politics. Most of the intellectual Brahmin Tamil class has emigrated outside Tamil Nadu. Only 5 seats out of 600 in the combined UP and Bihar assembly are held by Brahmins -- the rest are in the hands of the Yadavs.

400,000 Brahmins of the Kashmir valley, the once respected Kashmiri Pandits, now live as refugees in their own country, sometimes in refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi in appalling conditions. But who gives a damn about them? Their vote bank is negligible.
And this is not limited to the North alone. 75 per cent of domestic help and cooks in Andhra Pradesh are Brahmins. A study of the Brahmin community in a district in Andhra Pradesh (Brahmins of India by J Radhakrishna, published by Chugh Publications) reveals that today all purohits live below the poverty line.

Eighty per cent of those surveyed stated that their poverty and traditional style of dress and hair (tuft) had made them the butt of ridicule. Financial constraints coupled with the existing system of reservations for the `backward classes` prevented them from providing secular education to their children.

In fact, according to this study there has been an overall decline in the number of Brahmin students. With the average income of Brahmins being less than that of non-Brahmins, a high percentage of Brahmin students drop out at the intermediate level. In the 5 to 18 year age group, 44 per cent Brahmin students stopped education at the primary level and 36 per cent at the pre-matriculation level.

The study also found that 55 per cent of all Brahmins lived below the poverty line -- below a per capita income of Rs 650 a month. Since 45 per cent of the total population of India is officially stated to be below the poverty line it follows that the percentage of destitute Brahmins is 10 per cent higher than the all-India figure.

There is no reason to believe that the condition of Brahmins in other parts of the country is different. In this connection it would be revealing to quote the per capita income of various communities as stated by the Karnataka finance minister in the state assembly: Christians Rs 1,562, Vokkaligas Rs 914, Muslims Rs 794, Scheduled castes Rs 680, Scheduled Tribes Rs 577 and Brahmins Rs 537.

Appalling poverty compels many Brahmins to migrate to towns leading to spatial dispersal and consequent decline in their local influence and institutions. Brahmins initially turned to government jobs and modern occupations such as law and medicine. But preferential policies for the non-Brahmins have forced Brahmins to retreat in these spheres as well.
According to the Andhra Pradesh study, the largest percentage of Brahmins today are employed as domestic servants. The unemployment rate among them is as high as 75 per cent. Seventy percent of Brahmins are still relying on their hereditary vocation. There are hundreds of families that are surviving on just Rs 500 per month as priests in various temples (Department of Endowments statistics).

Priests are under tremendous difficulty today, sometimes even forced to beg for alms for survival. There are innumerable instances in which Brahmin priests who spent a lifetime studying Vedas are being ridiculed and disrespected.

At Tamil Nadu`s Ranganathaswamy Temple, a priest`s monthly salary is Rs 300 (Census Department studies) and a daily allowance of one measure of rice. The government staff at the same temple receive Rs 2,500 plus per month. But these facts have not modified the priests` reputation as `haves` and as `exploiters.` The destitution of Hindu priests has moved none, not even the parties known for Hindu sympathy.

The tragedy of modern India is that the combined votes of Dalits/OBC and Muslims are enough for any government to be elected. The Congress quickly cashed in on it after Independence, but probably no other government than Sonia Gandhi`s has gone so far in shamelessly dividing Indian society for garnering votes.

The Indian government gives Rs 1,000 crores (Rs 10 billion) for salaries of imams in mosques and Rs 200 crores (Rs 2 billion) as Haj subsidies. But no such help is available to Brahmins and upper castes. As a result, not only the Brahmins, but also some of the other upper castes in the lower middle class are suffering in silence today, seeing the minorities slowly taking control of their majority.

Anti-Brahminism originated in, and still prospers in anti-Hindu circles. It is particularly welcome among Marxists, missionaries, Muslims, separatists and Christian-backed Dalit movements of different hues. When they attack Brahmins, their target is unmistakably Hinduism.

So the question has to be asked: are the Brahmins (and other upper castes) of yesterday becoming the Dalits of today?

Harimau #84,

``In India, CASTE RULES! And I, as a Brahmin, RULE OVER YOU!!``

It is hard to argue with such deep proclamations of faith, but which part of
India are you exactly from ? Because caste certainly doesn`t RULE in my part
of the country - it exists in a fairly blah manner, without intruding into real
life.

#83 by plats8

What can chaddibroomboom do with his budget given 11% tax/gdp? If he increases deficit then what about the rising inflation which is burning his chaddi? Haha ..

And you`re right. There is no comparison. Pakistan`s measure of poverty is 2350 calories intake per day and Hindoostan`s measure is 2150 calories per day i.e. 200 calories less and still most of hindoostan is bhooka nanga ...

That`s the dilemma of chaddibroomboom .....

:~)

A Brahmin girl (rape victim) seeks permission to die

http://www.indiaenews.com/india/20070222/40557.htm

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Justice, or permission to die, rape victim tells Kalam

From correspondents in Bihar, India, 09:32 PM IST

A rape victim from Bihar, tired of facing threats, humiliation and social ostracisation, has sought justice or permission to die from President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

In a handwritten letter in Hindi addressed to the president, 16-year-old Kusum Kumari (named changed) has requested Kalam to intervene in getting her justice as she had lost hope in the local police. `Kalam chacha mujhe security aur nyay dila dein nahin to maut (Kalam uncle, help me to get justice or allow me to die),` she wrote.

Kusum is a resident of Patahi village in the Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, about 70 km from here. She was allegedly raped by a neighbour Jimmy Thakur who comes from an influential family.

Her plight worsened after she lodged a police complaint against Thakur, which led to his arrest. After investigating into her charges against Thakur the police had found the rape incident to be true.

In October last year when the police tried to speed up the trial of the case `Jimmy Thakur`s father Anil Thakur, his relatives and people from his caste started putting pressure on my family to withdraw the case and threatened to eliminate us, but we refused,` she said.
According to the FIR, Jimmy Thakur allegedly raped her on the night of Sep 27 last year. `I was raped at the point of a sharp-edged weapon and warned not to open my mouth,` she added.

The threats and mental torture continue, said the girl who comes from an upper caste Brahmin family. Fear and social reaction forced her father to flee the village and she has stopped going to school.

Her father, a priest who earned a living by performing prayers in the houses of villagers, `was boycotted by people from Jimmy Thakur`s caste as well as by others. This forced him to take shelter in another village to earn a living,` said the girl.

Kusum has said that not only did Thakur`s family and people from their caste regularly torture her, but her father, brothers and sister were also targeted and humiliated time and again in the last five months. `They threatened to repeat the incident with my younger sister,` said Kusum.

More trouble came when the Thakur family`s domestic help, a Dalit boy, lodged a case with the SC/ST police station in Hajipur against her father and sister saying they had beaten him.

Kusum is now awaiting a reply from President Kalam`s office before taking any step.
However, the DIG of Tirhut range, Gupteshwar Pandey, said that he had ordered a probe into her allegations against Jimmy Thakur`s family and others. The police would do everything to provide security to the rape victim and ensure a speedy trial of the case, he added.

`A police personnel had been deployed at her house. I asked the district superintendent of police to inquire into her fresh charges and take steps to protect her and her family,` said Pandey.

Re: # 88

Zeemax,

Kya karein ? We don`t have the chowk-brightening brilliance of people like you and
yours in our Finance ministry, and have to make do with the inadequate Chidambarams
and the Manmohan Singhs. Neither do they have the Armani elegance of your ruling
class.