The convenor of Karnataka Dalit Sangharsha Samiti in the district, Ramu Neelaghatta told Hindustan Times, “Few shops in the village refused to cut the hair of those belonging to the Dalit community just because of their caste. This has happened for years.” TLS Prema, the district’s social welfare deputy director, stated that after receiving complaints from Dalit leaders regarding discrimination in haircut shops, she and other officials visited these shops and started to sensitise people and ensure that Dalit people were able to receive haircuts. The department of social welfare also that they will be vigilant about such discriminatory instances in the future. 

A similar incident took place in the state on February 15, where two people were arrested and booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for reportedly practising untouchability in Koppal district. This took place after a person was denied a haircut in Halavarthi district. The person was also subjected to casteist comments. Local members of the Dalit community called for the closing such discriminatory shops, and accused fellow villagers of engaging in ‘discriminatory’ practices. In the aftermath of the incident, a peace meeting was held in the village which included the sub divisional magistrate Mahesh Malagatti and deputy superintendent of police Channappa Saravagol who also conducted an enquiry the same day. Another instance of a similar nature took place on the same data in Tamil Nadu’s Salem, as per a report by The Hindu, where a hairdresser in Kaveripuram was booked after he denied giving a haircut to a Dalit man. According to Times of India, he stated that, “Ramesh refused to cut my hair citing caste as the reason. Later on, I brought my son who was also refused for the same reasons.” Ilaiyaraja, who was subjected to the discrimination, recorded the instance on his mobile phone and later lodged a complaint with the Kolathur police station, who have booked him under the SC/ST Act. 

In June 2023, the New Indian Express reported how a simple act of discrimination was an outcome of heavy segregation and casteism practised against Dalits after the community stated that they were being charged rupees 500 for a haircut and, even were asked to pay to use chairs or sit on the stairs in local hotels in Rottigawad village in Hubballi, Karnataka, registering their protest on Thursday. The community took to the streets and heavily protested after which government officials visited the village and conducted an enquiry. The portal reported that even those local barbers who had no problem providing their haircutting services to Dalit persons, they were being threatened with their life to not cut their hair. 

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The post Social welfare department intervenes after Dalit youth faces discrimination, denied hair cut in Karnataka appeared first on SabrangIndia.

IITs have been infamous for trying to ensure ‘purity’ of vegetarian spaces by forced segregation and penalizing ‘contamination’ by meat eaters for years. In 2018, IIT Madras had designated separate entrances, utensils and even wash basins for vegetarian and non-vegetarian students. In the same year, IIT Bombay also tried to enforce segregation by separation of plates for vegetarian and non-vegetarians, where non-vegetarians are not allowed to use the circular plates. In September 2022, mess caterers of Hostel 10 in IIT Bombay were fined Rs.50,000 for cooking vegetarian food in the stove designated for non-vegetarian food. In 2014, the HRD ministry  had asked the IITs and IIMs to examine demand for a separate canteen for vegetarian students on their campuses, as a response to a letter that claimed “non-vegetarian food leaves an adverse impact on person consuming it” and “leads the development of ‘Tamas’ (dark and unrighteous) nature”. Even before the ministry directed the IITs, IIT Delhi decided to go full vegetarian, where students claimed the prime reason was that many vegetarian students had expressed their displeasure at eating on the same table with non-vegetarians. Recently, Laxmidhar Behera, the director of IIT Mandi, had sparked controversy by urging students to pledge not to eat meat, claiming that non-stop butchering of animals is causing landslides and cloudbursts and this will lead to a “significant downfall” of Himachal Pradesh. In IIT Hyderabad too, the segregation of eating spaces was formalized this year.

In India, the relationship between people and their food habits is majorly determined by the hierarchical caste system. Historically, caste has played an important role in determining who gets access to ‘pure’ food and who are to consume ‘impure’ food. Members of the highest caste are said to be mostly vegetarians and does not eat meat which is considered impure (though there are numerous exceptions within the communities). If they were to eat or even touch meat, they would be declared to be corrupted and would have to go through numerous purifying rituals. Thus, associating meat as ‘impure’ and ‘polluting’ and those who does not eat meat as ‘pure’ becomes a symbolic way of reinforcing the superiority of savarnas over the others in the caste hierarchy. These concepts of ‘purity and pollution’ have influenced practices of food cooking, serving, eating and even of cleaning utensils.

Food has always been used by savarnas as a tool to show the marginalised their inferior place in the social hierarchy. Cultural hegemony using food has become more aggressive in schools, colleges, and offices in recent years. IITs have been historically dominated by savarnas, even now more than 95 % of faculties in IITs are savarnas, demonstrating their impunity in the brutal violation of reservation. But due to implementation of reservation, especially after OBC reservations in the past decade, the caste demography of a once majorly savarna student population of IITs started changing and is becoming more diverse. The demand for segregation and militant vegetarianism that we see emerging in the past decade is a way to protect and reinforce the cultural superiority of savarnas over the others. The savarnas (privileged castes) see the influx of Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi (DBA) students into these spaces which they had been dominating for decades as a threat to their power. The administration of IITs, which are completely dominated by savarnas, fulfils this demand, and enforces this segregation with stringent penalties on the meat eaters, as seen from the imposition of Rs. 10,000 on the student protesting the segregation in IIT Bombay. Such a hefty fine for violating the rules of segregation is a modern form of untouchability, where mere presence of the Dalit Bahujans could ‘contaminate’ the ‘purity’ of savarna spaces. The food apartheid imposed on these campuses is a means to remind the DBA students that these academic spaces does not belong to them, that they are ‘dirty’ and ‘impure’, and they will be punished if they violate the rules of savarnas or question their casteist superiority.

In India, food is a marker of class, caste, religion, and even region. The hefty fine for a petty violation points the deep rooted casteism that is being enforced by the administration of these institutes as food apartheid. This strict segregation demanded by savarna students and enforced by the savarna administration seeks to reinforce prejudice against marginalized groups, by formally recognizing certain food as ‘pure’ and other ‘impure’.It is the casteist politics of pollution that seeks this institutionalization of untouchability.

In IIT Bombay messes, meat is not served as a part of regular mess food and students who want to eat meat must pay extra for it. In a country with more than 70% meat eaters, it is outrageous that the regular mess menu is fully devoid of meat. This is done to normalize the cultural dominance of vegetarians, despite them being a numerical minority. Special Jain counters are available in IIT messes to cater to their specific dietary requirements without any additional costs, but students who regularly eat meat, who comprises majority of the DBA students, do not get meat in their regular diet and are required to pay more. The savarna vegetarian food has become the norm even in canteens across institutes of higher learning and university dining spaces across the country. DBA students are sometimes forced to cook their food inside their room, away from the dining spaces out of fear of humiliation and abuse.

During a recent talk in IIT Bombay, Dr Sukhdeo Thorat, former chairman of UGC, clearly opined that educational institutions should not devise policy for segregation of eating spaces. Students can sit separately on their own, but institutions enforcing such segregation is promoting the casteist ideas of purity and pollution. Prof. Thorat emphasises that the decision of IIT Bombay to segregate eating spaces will further strengthen the idea of caste and pollution with food habits. “It must be recognized that what food to eat is the individual right of a person, but to treat vegetarians as pure and good and non-vegetarians as bad and impure and therefore both should be segregated from each other while sitting, is a wrong practice.”

The demand for segregation has not been raised by all vegetarians. They do not seek separate utensils, separate dining spaces and living spaces. Not all express disgust at the sight and smell of meat. Mixed dining is changing the ethics and aesthetics of food consumption in urban spaces. The caste-based superiority of Indian vegetarianism is facing a crisis and the rise of militant vegetarianism which feels disgust and anger at the very sight of meat shows this insecurity. Militant vegetarians seek to continually sustain this traditional (exclusivist) ethics and aesthetics of segregation and hierarchy in food consumption. There is also hidden anxiety among many vegetarian parents that their children might be attracted to meat, which leads to aggressive demands for the abolition of meat from all public and even private spaces. Casteist vegetarianism where savarna children are indoctrinated to hate the sight and smell of meat can be a subtle way of ensuring endogamy.

In an IIT Bombay survey conducted in 2021, even though more than half of savarna students responded that they do not want separate eating spaces or utensils, almost half (41%) demanded that they be provided separate spaces away from people who consume meat.

There is no end to this absurd segregation once sub-categorization begins where students are separated for eating garlic or no-garlic, sattvic, or egg-vegetarian. Such distinctions can multiply endlessly, fragmenting the community and undermining the very essence of unity and diversity. It can also extend to separate hostel rooms and other separation of spaces within educational institutes, which is not conducive to the inclusive ethos of an educational institution.

Dr Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director at the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, also questioned why people consuming milk, which is also derived from animals, has never been a source of contention. This reinforces the fact that the issue extends beyond the simple matter of dietary impositions but has to do with the larger context of caste prejudice. Such policies based on the casteist notions of purity is incompatible with the core values of scientific education. Segregation based on dietary choices sends a disturbing message to students that their food preferences define their purity and worth. This notion contradicts the essence of scientific inquiry and rational thinking, which should be central to any academic institution, particularly one that is supposed to teach science and technology like IITs.

Educational institutions should be transformative multi-cultural spaces where students have an opportunity to interact with peers from diverse backgrounds. These interactions lead to personal growth and intellectual expansion, recognizing personal privileges and unlearning prejudices. Food can be a unifying factor that fosters cultural appreciation and help people come together. Imposing segregation would impede this process of cultural exploration and hinder opportunities to utilize the diversity and unlearn biases. Instead, these practices contribute to further dehumanization and harassment of marginalized communities. Students belonging to DBA communities have been facing abuses and discrimination based on their food choices in these institutes.

A couple of months ago, a video clip of entrepreneur Sudha Murthy declaring herself a “pure vegetarian” and sharing her anxieties about sharing spoons with non-vegetarians when travelling abroad, went viral. Her comments led to outrage about ‘Brahmanical’ food segregation practices that have historically been used by savarnas to discriminate against oppressed sections of the population. Prof Ravikant Kisana, a professor of Cultural Studies, points out that her anxiety is not merely a food issue but a symptom of casteist prejudice and this mindset is not restricted to her alone.

In September 2017, a scientist from Indian Meteorological Department in Pune, filed a police complaint against her cook for violating her ritual purity because the cook did not ‘declare’ her ‘true’ caste at the time of appointment. She vehemently accused the cook of violating her hygiene standards and filling her kitchen with filth. This preference for savarna cooks and perception of brahmin or upper caste food as clean and edible is the manifestation of a deeply engrained hatred towards DBA and the persistence of untouchability.

Power dynamics of caste creates and perpetuates the belief of superior and inferior food cultures. Smell is used a means to ostracize and demonize DBA communities as causing a civic nuisance. The food consumed by DBA communities is portrayed as ‘dirty’ or ‘smelly’ to reinforce the dominant narrative of ‘pure’ vegetarian food.

This is visible in exclusive housing associations restricted strictly to vegetarians and the savarnas. Here, cooking and eating meat are presented as a civic nuisance that disturbs the peace and aesthetics of the place. This justifies the exclusion of people who cook and eat meat to maintain the savarna status quo and food culture.

Food intolerance is prevalent when searching for places to live. For instance, even landlords, neighbors and housing associations find the food cooked by DBA and religious minorities in the privacy of their homes, “stinky and revolting”. Savarna landlords uses the dietary habits to turn down residence to people belonging to DBA communities. Neighbors often raise complaints about cooking meat and such fights often become regional.

Three Jain trusts and one individual moved the Bombay High Court to demand a ban on meat advertisements, on the grounds that such advertising was a violation of their right to life, to live in peace, and to their privacy. In the earlier case, the high court had stated that being vegetarian or non-vegetarian was a personal choice and no meat shop could be ordered to close for the comfort of vegetarians. In this instance, the high court stated to the petitioner, religious trusts that there was no law in the land that could be evoked to ban meat ads.

Dr Sylvia Karpagam, a public health doctor and researcher, talks about Exaggerated Vegetarian Fragility Syndrome becoming associated with the constant promotion of vegetarianism in India, which reinforces the perceived superiority of those who consume vegetarian food. It also has long reaching impact in public health policies in a country like India, which has a high malnourished population. The demand for removal of meat and egg from noon meal programmes of government schools can adversely impact the lives of millions of children, especially those belonging to DBA communities and stunt their physical and intellectual growth.

Demonising meat and meat eaters plays an important role in maintaining the savarna hegemony in these institutional spaces. Assertions from DBA communities are necessary to challenge this dominant narrative of savarna superiority. Academic spaces should not succumb to militant vegetarianism and try reinforcing caste superiority. These spaces should instead encourage mixed dining where people can come together shedding their prejudices and learn about different cultures. These educational spaces should invest in scientific temper and higher learning that celebrates diversity, not hierarchy.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author’s personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Sabranginia

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A two-year-old innocently toddled into a temple in a Karnataka village, and his Dalit family ended up paying the price, literally! The family was fined Rs 25,000 after their two-year-old child entered a temple in the village. According to news reports, Chandru, the father of the toddler, and his family are Dalits, and are not allowed in the Anjaneya Temple in Miyapur of Koppal. It was on September 4, that the child entered the temple when his family had gone there to offer prayers for his birthday. 

After the child ran inside the temple premises the temple priest and locals objected to this, and then eventually imposed a fine on the family on September 11, stated news reports.The media reported that locals belonging to the so called ‘upper caste’ demanded money from the child’s family for ‘purification’ rituals at the temple they claimed had been defiled.

Speaking to mediapersons, Chandru said, “It was my son’s birthday and we wanted to offer our prayers at the Anjaneya temple in front of our house. It started raining then and my son entered the temple. That is all that happened.” After the incident and the ‘fine’ came to light, members of the Channadasar community to which Chandru belongs, held protests and approached the police, reported India Today. However, Chandru’s family have reportedly refused to lodge a police complaint to avoid disrupting the harmony of the village. Nevertheless the district administration intervened, resolved the issue and warned them.

More than 10 days after the Dalit family was ‘fined’ Rs 25,000, the Kushtagi police have registered a case under the SC/ST prevention of atrocities Act on Wednesday and arrested five people of Miyapur village, reported The Times of India. Calling the penalty “inhumane and shameful”, Koppal deputy commissioner Suralkar Vikas Kishor urged the people to report incidents of untouchability without delay.

The TOI reported that DC Kishor, SP T Sreedhara and other officials visited Miyapur on Wednesday and convened a meeting of villagers. “It is not the temple that is dirty after the entry of the Dalit boy but our mind that is dirty,” the DC told villa villagers reminding them that Citizens have equal responsibility, to report such hate crimes. The DC told the media that the boy’s father had approached police on September 13 but refused to register a case. “We request victims to come forward and come forward and register a case, barring which we will register cases suo motu,” he said. Those arrested in the case have been identified as: Karakappa Pujari, Hanumagouda,  Gavisiddappa Myageri, Virupakshagouda Myageri and Sharanagouda. 

This is yet another example of biases and prejudices like looking down on one’s appearance, their mannerisms, how one chooses to pray, has the capacity to consume us within a society. Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) Secretary and human rights defender Teesta Setalvad explains how these biases “stereotyping, insensitive remarks, fear of differences, non-inclusive language, micro aggressions justifying biases by seeking out like-minded people, that takes shape in the form of hate.” This prejudiced attitude is the first stage in the Pyramid Of Hate’. The next stage is acts of prejudice which involves name calling, social exclusion, targeting particular sections of the society by telling belittling jokes. The third stage is discrimination, where certain communities are subject to harassment, bullying, exclusion in housing, employment, education .

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A letter petition in the apex court seeks directions for discontinuing the use of the term “Social distancing” and use the term “physical distancing” instead, owing to the stigma related to the former.

This petition has been filed by an advocate practicing in Hyderabad Dr. B. Karthik Navayan who contends that any of the terms like “physical distancing” or “individual distancing” or “safe distancing” or “disease distancing” may be used instead of “social distancing” by the Union as well as all state governments. He says in his petition that the same should be done in the interest of the country, society as well as to uphold the spirit of the Constitution of India.

He further contends that the usage of the term could lead to furthering the discriminatory caste based social practices like untouchability and also caste prejudices. The advocate cites an incident whereby a Telugu cine lyricist made a video asking his community to take pride in their discriminatory practices against the Scheduled castes as the same are being used to combat coronavirus. He further pointed out that even the World health Organization (WHO) has started using the term “physical distancing” and the Indian government should also follow suit.

He further cites the definition of Social distancing in the advisory issued by the Department of Health and Family Welfare which is to stay at least 6 feet from other people, no gathering in groups and to stay out of crowded places. He says this is akin to physical distancing and now social distancing, as the latter is just a term resembling caste based untouchability. The letter petition hence asks the apex court to issue a direction to the Centre as well as state government to refrain rom using the term social distancing in its official documents including public advisories and instead use “physical distancing”.

The practice of untouchability is prohibited under the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 as well as Article 17 of the Indian Constitution. The petitioner in this case has however, failed to cite adequate number of incidents to prove that the usage of the term “social distancing” has in fact manifested the practice of untouchability against certain castes hence, it would be difficult for the court to consider giving such directions.

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The post Call it ‘physical distancing’, not ‘social distancing’: Petition in SC appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Note: The use of the words “Chamar”, “Untouchables”, and “Untouchability” in this article is in a historical context of the self-identified terminology pertaining to the time when these events took place. 

“Where there is no affliction or suffering

Neither anxiety nor fear, taxes nor capital

No menace, no terror, no humiliation…

Says Ravidas the emancipated Chamar:

One who shares with me that city is my friend.” 

– Guru Ravidas

(This unpublished translation by Joel Lee appears in Arundhati Roy’s “The Doctor and The Saint”)
 

When Guru Ravidas envisioned this utopian un-segregated land of Be-gham-pura (the city without sorrow), he spoke with the collective voice of the Untouchable community.

Guru Ravidas was one of the most prominent poets of the Bhakti Movement in 15th-16th century. Born into an Untouchable Chamar caste family, he retained his caste occupation as a cobbler and inspired social reform through his Bhakti poetry, using it as a middle path of social protest against caste based exclusion and oppression. His protest was novel, understated, yet dangerous, as he challenged upper caste Hindus even in the way he dressed- wearing dhoti, janeu, and tilak-which were forbidden for the Untouchables. 

It was under the influence of great mystic saints like Guru Ravidas himself, Maharishi Balmiki Ji, Satguru Namdev Ji and Bhagat Kabir Ji, that a new religion- Ad Dharm was conceptualized in Pre-Independence India. The Ad Dharm Mandal was founded on 11th -12th June 1926 A.D. at village Muggowal of District Hoshiarpur in Punjab. It was founded by Babu Mangoo Ram of village Muggowal along with Master Gurbanta Singh and sought to separate the Achhut Panth (Untouchable community) from the Hindus and remedy the generational impacts of caste atrocities and trauma. The Ad Dharm Mandal called for free primary education for their children and separate representation in all public bodies and legislature. 

The context of this radical movement came as a consequence of a series of events set off by the British occupation of Punjab in the early 20th century. Once the British established cantonments and started developing urban centers, new employment opportunities arose for the Chamar caste who worked primarily with leather and supplying raw animal hide. Many of them started manufacturing leather goods for the British army and started to move into towns. The ones who made the most of these opportunities also migrated to abroad to England, USA and Canada. The resulting social and economic upward mobility enabled education and exposure which fuelled political awareness and uprising. 

The British administrative structure also deployed governance based on categorizing the population of India in terms of religious communities for the purposes of colonial Census. This led to distinctions and differentiations of identity along sharp lines, prompting anxiety among major religions to consolidate their numbers. 

“Reform” movements from both Hindu and Sikh organizations started targeting the Dalit community. While the “Shuddhi Movement” encouraged Untouchables to “purify” themselves and be embraced (figuratively) in mainstream Hinduism, Sikh reformers expostulated that since the tenets of Sikhism rejected caste altogether, the Untouchable community would be able to shed off caste identity altogether. Both approaches had their problematic stances and failings, and this created the neccesity and space for the Ad Dharm movement. 

The Ad Dharam movement did succeed in mobilizing the Chamars of Doaba region and in instilling a new sense of confidence in them. They made petitions, speeches, led marches, and called for the abolishment of “Untouchability”. The Ad Dharmis are today among the most prosperous and educated of the Dalit communities of the country. But by 1931, as the movement founders started occupying political posts and eventually accepted the classification of Ad Dharmis as a scheduled caste under Hinduism in the Census, the movement lost its momentum and an evolution of Ad Dharmis into Ravidasis (followers of Guru Ravidas) began.

Nationally, as the Dalit movement took hold under Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the Ad Dharmis alligned and merged with the national movement. The Ad Dharam Mandal began to see itself as a social and religious organization and in 1946 decided to change its name to the Ravi Das Mandal, ‘entrusting the political work to All India Scheduled Castes Federation in conformity with rest of India’.

This Republic Day, as we honour the day our Indian Constitution came into force, we also honour Dr. Ambedkar, who drafted it. On this day, we also honour the long standing struggle of the Dalit community and the various organizations, leaders, and movements that have challenged the draconian caste system. Each of these movements has had its own struggles, obstacles, and successes and they all deserve to be remembered and placed in historical context, as we are still, as a country working at the uphill task of annihilating caste.

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Historically, for Dalits to be on crossroads is a new phenomenon. They have, with their own labour and sweat, gradually progressed through a most difficult journey, unique in the world, from being treated and sanctioned as ‘untouchable’ to being equal citizens. And yet, the fact is, their enemies have been more powerful than the ten-headed imaginary demons.

They fought discriminatory laws during the colonial rule, the society at large which segregated them in all fields of life, and the religion, including its scriptures. Amidst all their weapons, including education, reservation and rejection of the enslaving faith, the most powerful of them has been the legal tools emerging from the Constitutional guarantees, post-Independence. The legal protection has been the latest crossroad in the epic journey.

A year ago, more than a dozen Dalits lost their lives when they descended on the streets to protest the Supreme Court directions on implementation of the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) (Prevention of Atrocity) Act. The Apex Court’s concluding observation was that the Act has been misused in the absence of any credible research or data.

Karnataka BJP Dalit MP Narayanaswamy

 

Death of manual scavengers in sewer lines, ironically, is not considered an ‘atrocity’. What is equally troubling is complete absence of state action and political will to control caste violence with a firm hand. The situation signifies that Dalits are losing the value of their ‘vote’, which has never been ‘untouchable’ to any political party, and their negotiating ability to better their situation.

For India, the largest democracy thriving to be a major economy in the world, the presence of untouchability has been deeply embarrassing. The present government, following the footsteps of their predecessors, has been far from willing to accept the fact that, amidst tall claims of development, we as a society have failed to abolish untouchability, a root cause of atrocities. 

Martin Macwan at a Dalit gathering

The lawmaker in his reaction for being treated as powerless untouchable MP advocated for change of conscience of people as a remedy to the problem of untouchability. The underbelly of the reaction was perhaps a painful admission of the fact that the tools for social justice, the law, the political reservations for Dalits and the vote value of Dalits at 16.5%, have lost its cutting edge. 

The post ‘Political conspiracy’ to isolate Dalits amidst failure of campaign to annihilate caste appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image Courtesy: Live Law

“This validates the observation of the court that 17 is attracted. The temple is also polluted by death etc, but that is not relevant! However, when a menstruating woman enters the temple, it needs to be purified?”

Earlier, Mr. Parasaran had argued that “untouchability” is a term of art, the only word which appears in double-inverted commas in the Constitution for the sole reason that it is not to be expanded- “This is a word of Norman jurists. Untouchability was practiced on the secular side too. While several castes are covered under reservation, as per the expanded meaning, untouchability is confined to the Hindu temples under Article 25(2)(b). “In case of untouchability, the treatment accorded to you is less than human…”, he had remarked.

When Justice Rohinton Nariman had asked what happens to the feeling of the woman where a Scheduled Caste woman of menstruating age is involved, Mr. Parasaran had replied that while untouchability is only aimed at the Scheduled Caste, here, the practice applies to the commoner, in general.

Under section 12 of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, the presumption will be of untouchability, Justice Nariman had probed. That Act deals with the caste system and nothing else, insisted the veteran lawyer.

In her turn, Ms. Jaising submitted,

“the word ‘untouchability’ dd not exist till the 19th century. It was Introduced in the Oxford dictionary only in the late 19th century. It Has its origin in the caste system in India; it does not exist in the UK. It is found in quotes as there was no definition of the term until the late 19th century. It should be understood as how it is generally understood- as pollution, based on caste or otherwise…the ban on women totally falls under untouchability”

She also drew the bench’s attention to the fact that a separate issue on whether the impugned practice amounts to untouchability under Article 17 had been expressly framed in the order for reference to the Constitution bench.

Further, Mr. Parasaran had suggested that Article 15 threw open to one and all public institutions of a secular character but not those of the religious category- “Three amendments were proposed during the debates in the constituent assembly to include places of worship of a public nature. All were voted against”

“The core of the judgment is based on discrimination in 15(1). But Mr. Parasaran forgets the latter part of 15(2)- it speaks of places ‘dedicated to the use of general public’. If sabarimala is not a family temple but a public temple, how can he say 15(2) has no application?”, contended Ms. Jaising in response.

“The Second answer is in article 25 itself. See the title- Freedom of Conscience. It is my conscience which is equally protected like anybody else’s. If my conscience tells me to enter, i will. Who would stop me in law? Physically, of course, i have been stopped… All we say is allow us the right to enter. nothing beyond that! nothing about the rituals the thanthri performs!”, she pleaded.

“Mr. Parasaran talked of the preamble; it speaks of liberty of worship…religion is nowhere defined in the constitution. My religion is my own…Read the preamble with the title of 25- I will ‘worship’ as per my conscience. My conscience says all Gods accept all humans, that Lord ayyappa would not discriminate against me on the basis of gender. I decide it is my religion!…25 says ‘all persons’, not all men. Is a woman also a person? That is why this court has held all persons as equal. If i am a person in the eyes of law, i have the right to worship!…that Religion is an island not subject to the Constitution is what was argued in public domain?! But Articles 15, 17, 25 and 26 have been harmoniously construed by this court…”

In so far as the jurisdiction of the court in deciding whether a religious practice is a superstition or not was questioned, Ms. Jaising indicated the Fundamental Duty in Article 51A(h)- “to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform”

“In entering the temple, that is what I am doing!”, she asserted.

To this submission, Justice Nariman also added the Duty enumerated in clause (e)- to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women.
“Exclusion of women is derogatory! The purification ritual hurt deeply! It is a constitutional hurt, not an ordinary one! It goes to the heart of the Constitution!”, she urged passionately.

“What was at stake in the original hearing was the issue of gender justice. Can gender justice can be sacrificed at the altar of denomination?”, pressed Ms. Jaising in the light of the dissent authored by Justice Indu Malhotra.

She also pointed out that in holding Sabarimala devotees to be a separate denomination, Justice Malhotra had relied on the dissenting judgment of Justice O. Chinappa Reddy in the 1982 S. P. Mittal case.

In as much as the review petitioners had expressed doubts as to the concept of constitutional morality, she argued that there is no dispute as to its meaning- “Constitutional morality is the sum and substance of Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy. Nothing over that! It is not vague…some of the Fundamental Rights have been held to be part of the basic structure of the Constitution. That is constitutional morality!”

By way of answer to the repeated contention on the opposite side that the petitioners in the original proceedings are not Ayyappa devotees, she placed reliance on Adi Saiva Sivacharyargal Nala Sangam v. Govt. of Tamil Nadu (2015), where the apex court held that the freedom of religion under Articles 25 and 26 is not only confined to beliefs but extends to religious practices.

“Your Lordships had observed that where an issue of grave importance is raised, the court would not look into the locus of the petitioner…”, she submitted.

“A case for review is not made out…it is in the nature of appeal”, she concluded.

At the threshold, Ms. Jaising had set out that she was appearing for a dalit woman who had entered the temple on January 2 along with a hindu woman- “There were cries of ‘Kill them, kill them’…the woman was beaten by her own family…the mother of one of the women has received death threats…it is not just about exclusion, but social boycott! They are being prevented from accessing essential commodities…shopkeepers have been asked not to sell to them…”

“We cannot enter the temple amidst such mob riots. Women don’t go to war…Violence is not in the character of women”

Finally, Ms. Jaising prayed for a mandamus against such social ostracisation, death threats and attempts to prevent entry- “Your Lordships have categorically declined to stay the impugned judgment. The Temple is next due to open on February 12. There are two other women who are Hindus and who are desirous of visiting the Temple and have applied online. But they are being restrained by mobs…”

Courtesy: Indian cultural Forum
 

The post Sabarimala: Purification Ritual Goes To The Heart Of The Constitution, It Shows Untouchabilty: Jaising appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Photo courtesy: Twitter handle @wbf_canada
 

The post Opinion: Will the caste mind rise and smash Brahmanical Patriarchy? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

According to the report, Venkatesh D has complained that during his visit to Chitradurga district last Friday, the BJP leader put up a show before the media of eating at a Dalit home but it wasn’t food the family had prepared. It had been ordered from a hotel.

The complainant said such action from the BJP leader would send a wrong message to society, in particular in his own home district Mandya which has already seen several honour killings in recent marriages.

The police confirmed they had received the complaint and would take necessary action after looking into the matter.

Yeddyurappa is already faced with a similar controversy on social media following photographs showing him eating “tatte idli” at a Dalit house in Tumkur district.

Following the allegations leaders from the Congress and the Janata Dal (S) have lashed out at Yeddyurappa alleging that he has dishonoured Dalits wth his “stunts”.

In response, Yeddyurappa has accused his detractors of dishonouring Dalits and demanded that they apologise to the Dalits in whose homes he had breakfast.
 
 

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In his complaint, Venkatesh D alleged that, during his visit to Chitradurga district on Friday, Yeddyurappa had visited a Dalit family in Kelakote, where he had breakfast.

Venkatesh said that the Idli consumed by the former chief minister and other BJP functionaries were not prepared by the Dalit family adding that it was ordered from a hotel.

Venkatesh has also lodged a complaint with the Home Minister G Parameshwara who visited the family the family on Saturday.

The complainant said that Yeddyurappa’s action amounted to discrimination and untouchability.

Also accompanying Yeddyurappa in Gubbi taluk of Tumakuru district was KS Eshwarappa, Ananth Kumar.

Reacting to the news, the JDS’s state president, H D Kumaraswamy, had said, “Why did Yeddyurappa not eat the pulao prepared in their home?”

The incident has left the BJP red-faced given that the state goes for polls in less than a year’s time.

“The complaint is politically motivated and lodged by those who have been shaken by the dalit outreach programme.Their frustration is palpable,” Times of India quoted a BJP spokesperson.
 

He said, “All the leaders who raised the issue must apologise to Dalits at whose homes I had breakfast.”

Courtesy: Janta Ka Reporter
 

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