John Trimble, Revolutionary Party, Atlanta, USA: read an article in the London Economist (June 8) saying that “the Jati has taken over from the varna as the key to the Organizer, All-African People’s caste system”. (p.22) Is this true? What is the relationship between Jati and varna? It says Rajput’s, Marathas and Jets are upper caste. Several members of our party are confused over understanding the caste system beyond the basic four: Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. am also confused. Many articles in the Dalit Voice assume a deeper knowledge of the caste system than most non-Indians have. Is there a document that will help us? ‘
Hsu Pei-tzu, Coordinator, Initiative for an Asia-Pacific “Human Rights Database, 8th fl. 102 Kwangju S. Rd., Taipei, Taiwan: A seminar held here on human rights organizations on Oct. 2-4, 1990 with participants from 15 countries recommended creation of a regional or sub-regional human rights groupings. It was decided for set up a human rights databank.
Ghulam Nabi, Diamond Bar, 1538 S. Sun bluff Dr. CA 91765, USA: This is with ref. to July 5 reports on the Israeli “tourists” in Kashmir. When even journalists are not permitted inside Kashmir, how did the govt. permit entry of “tourists” from Israel? They are not tourists but terrorists out to persecute the Kashmiri freedom-fighters. The Indian army is daily Killing many. innocent Kashmiris.
Dr. Velu Annamalai, The International Dalit Support Group (IDSG) Houston, USA: Our postal code number is 77284-2066 and not as published in the DV. The P.O. Box No. is 842066.
Dennis Walker, 35 Rosemond St., Balaclava, J Melbourne, 3183 Australia: am urgently in need of the text of the communication that Abdul Wali Mohammad, brother of Louise Farrakhan, the great Black Muslim leader of US, and Editor of the Final Call weekly published from Chicago, had published in the Dalit Voice around April or May 1989. need this for my book on the Black Muslims in which1 want to analyze the Black Muslim relationship with India’s Black Untouchables which developed as a result of your meeting the two above leaders during your last visit to Libya.
Rudy Gozales, New York: congratulate you for proving right on the Gulf War and Saddam Hussain. When you wrote your famous editorial, “Welcome War” (DV Feb. 16, 1991) and “Salute Saddam” (DV March 16, 1991) never believed you. sent you a firing letter which you did not publish. Now realize why you did not publish it. President Bush is planning a second attack on Iraq which means he could not “finish” Saddam in the first attack as claimed by. the western press. salute DV.
(The western press put out false reports on the Gulf War and brainwashed the world to believe that US won and Saddam finished. Nothing of it happened. It was the other way. Had not Bush quickly decided to withdraw from Iraq, US forces would have met with their second defeat after the Viet Nam war. See our report elsewhere in DV – EDITOR).
Ramesh Chandra Parmar, Dalit Panthers, No.8, Manhar Nagar, Rajpur, Gomtipur, Ahmedabad-380 021: have translated all your books into Gujarati. Gujaratis who do not know English and Dalits in particular must read your books. am ready to give my script without any condition if anybody is prepared to print them.:
Ram Pujan, Delhi: Untouchables calling themselves Valmiki’s in North India have committed a great blunder. They are worshiping the book, Shrimad Valmiki Ramayana, in three volumes. This book is published in 1981 from Bangalore, Vigneswaran Publishing House, No.19, 12th main, Malleswaram West, Bangalore-3. The author is a Brahmin, N. Raghunathan. These Valmiki’s think that Valmiki, an Untouchable (hunter community), is the author of this mythology called Ramayana which was manufactured by the Brahmins after they destroyed Buddhism to fool Untouchables like these Valmiki’s. Dalit intellectuals must save these Valmiki’s from this brahminesses Ramayana and bring them under Dr. Ambedkar.
Pathiripaly George John, Trivandrum: The debate in DV on the “Three Commandments” of Babasaheb has brought home to us the golden words of our Savior. We thank you for clearing all the doubts by your famous editorial of Feb. 16, 1989. We must also thank the great authority on Babasaheb, Vasant Moon of Bombay.
D.C. Ahir, New Delhi: Harikrishna Prasad of Vizag, AP, is wrong (DV “letters” July 16 p.13) when he said Babasaheb Ambedkar never opposed communism. Please read Babasaheb speech at the WFB conference in Nepal in Nov. 1956 published in my book, Dr. Ambedkar on Buddhism, Peoples Education Society, Siddharth College, Bombay, 1982. Also, Babasaheb’s Essay, Buddha or Karl Marx and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches Vol.3, Maharashtra Govt. 1987. The better way to understand Babasaheb is through Buddhism and not atheism.
Hemlata Shetty, Bangalore: During my recent visit to London, had the opportunity of staying amidst overseas students, especially those from Commonwealth countries. was shocked that did not find any SC/ST students. think they are not aware of the many scholarship facilities available under various schemes like Colombo Plan, British Council schemes and many others. Lack of knowledge has deprived them of these facilities to study abroad in such prestigious institutions of UK. I also did not see Black students when I visited Oxford University.
rebait Ranjan Roy, Calcutta: I want to bring to your notice the “Discipline & Appeal Rules, 1968 of the Rly. servants (D&A) Rules, 1968”. This rule has given discretionary powers to officials under the Govt. of India. They need not give any reason or cause to suspend any staff member. Upper caste officials who suffer from caste prejudice conveniently use this rule to torment SC/ST staff. We came to know about this from the Supreme Court verdict (Times of India April 23 91) which recognized this fact. As such the Govt. must amend this rule saying that it cannot take recourse to this rule in the case of SC/ST.
R.L. Kain, Gen. Secretary, Dr. Ambedkar Vichar Manch, New Delhi; Glad to read about the film Balak Ambedkar by Swatantra Rao, IAS, Industries Secretary, Karnataka Govt., Bangalore. This can be televised if we persuade the Door darshan. The Centenary Committee here has disappointed us and I have no hope of any big program me during this concluding year of Babasaheb centenary. HMT is going to shortly release four models of wrist watches containing pictures, signatures of Babasaheb. I have a 11-minute taped speech by Babasaheb made on 17.12.1946 which you just published in DV (July 16 p.17).
Ram Sharan, President, Punjab Civil Secretariat SC Emp. Welfare Assn., Chandigarh: It gives me limitless pleasure to read a report on the persecution of our members in DV July 16.
S.N. Mandal, Padmapukar, Thakurpukar, Calcutta- 700 063: I have been much impressed by DV. The Editorials and articles and reports in it are very important and hence it must be translated to Bengali. Also, your books. I need your permission for this.
G. D. Biswas, Terakihi, Orissa: Sometimes you praise Swami Vivekananda: It is true he wrote: “Kick out the priest.” But it is also true that he did not utter a word against the caste system. On the contrary, his guru, Ramakrishna, asked his Brahmin disciples not to take rice in the house of a kayasth (Shudra). It is found in Bhakta Malika – Part-I, Ramakrishna Mission, Calcutta-3.
R. Anbarasu, gen. sec., Dr. Ambedkar Youth Front, 28-Deen Complex, Tiruverumbur, Tiruchy, TN-620 013: We had received an oral permission to install Babasaheb statue at the public office compound, Pudukkottai. On the day of unveiling (12-5-91) about 8,000 people had gathered but they got enraged when the permission was denied. We kept the statute on the ground covering the face with a gunny bag beside the 10-ft. high pedestal.
Kirit Mahida, Legal Education & Awareness Program me, Ashadeep, Human Devp. Centre, Nana Bazar, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat-388 120: I am Gujarati Dalit Christian working for the past ten years along with Fr. Charles Aroldis, a Jesuit priest and also a Dalit, for the liberation of the oppressed in this”. – area. We have 41 mahila mandals in Kheda dt. have translated your booklet, Church and Dalit Liberation, into Gujarati. need your permission to publish it. We study DV carefully and derive lot of inspiration from it.
Prakash Chandra Rai, New Delhi: DV was the only journal which clearly said about the foreign hand in Rajiv Gandhi murder. CIA and Mossad were hinted. at. never believed you then. But now Union Home Minister Chavan has pinned the blame on a foreign super power.
(You are right. The CBI and the SIT went about saying that Lankan Tamil Tigers were the culprits and this theory suited the Tamil papas. When we wrote about the CIA-Mossad theory, we received some letters criticizing us. Because our Brahminical press has brainwashed everybody. But now India’s highest authority has admitted the hand of USA. There was no chance of the Congress Party winning the election. The Hindu nazis launched their most expensive and noisy election campaign only to see that the Congress, the mother of the nazi parties, captured power. But as the first round of the polling was over, the Aryans were nervous that the election was going against them and in favour of the Mandals. The only way to reverse the trend was to sacrifice Rajiv by which there was a ten per cent shift of vole in favour of the Congress. It is now over two months since Rajiv was killed but our super sleuths of the CBI are not able to catch anybody except coming out with one short story a day. On the other hand, they have messed up the whole thing. The Bangalore pipette is using this pretext to crush the Dravidians, recklessly arresting Tamil youths. Soon the Dravidian anger will overflow in which she will be washed out. Dr. Ramadoss must sharpen these contradictions, clean up the Dravidian movement and re-establish Periyarism – EDITOR)
P.R. Kuppuswamy, Advocate, Karur: The papans are secretly trying to eat away the vitals of Pereyra’s – self-respect movement. They are doing everything to re-establish Brahminism in TN. The united action on the part of all Dravidians is the urgent need of the hour. have met Dr. Ramadoss and Veeramani in Madras in this connection.
Prof. N.V. Narasimha, Bangalore: The Backward Castes in Karnataka are very badly divided. Some of the BC leaders are selfish, coming in the way of this unity. We are very much worried about this.
Mahesh Shinde, Bombay: The Nazi official journal, Organizer, recently said the BJP govt. in Himachal Pradesh had sanctioned a huge an amount for the construction of a temple for their Aryan Law-giver, Manu, at Manali (HP). Why DV did not highlight this? The Manu and Ram temples are part of the Aryan design to continue the Aryan hegemony. DV must come out with a strong protest.
Raja Yusuf, Islamic Relief Com., Anantnag, ‘Kashmir: saw an issue of DV in the Weekly Kashmiriyat here and found it very inspiring.
A.K.M. Hakim, Bombay: The quality and extent of DV coverage are heart-warming and raise hopes for the future of the oppressed millions of India. am a retd. Dy Director of Employment, Maharashtra Govt.
S. Ahmed, Secretary, Nayab Urdu Library, Quazi Mohalla, Sherghatti, Gaya, Bihar: We are running a library for SC/BC/Muslims but we are so poor that we can’t afford the subscription. But DV has become a must reading because of its simple sincerity.
Syed Md. Ibrahim Madani, Tiruchi: After a lapse of six months, renewed my subscription to DV and found it very much improved in form and content. was in utter confusion when was not getting DV for the past six months. But now all that confusion will disappear once start reading it.
Prof. Tahir Hussain Jafri, Durg, MP: fully agree with the analysis of your election results. You have “rightly said that despite the fact that we are 85%, we are weaker than the 15% Aryans. You are also fully right in asking us to vote for Janata Dal. The Muslim press has failed. The Radiance added to the confusion. And Muslim votes got divided helping the Congress which is the sugarcoated variety of the nazi party.
Francis Baptista, New Delhi: read an interesting report in the Patriot (July 24) under the headline “Nationalization of temples urged”. The Panaji story said: “The Goan Lok Dal has urged nationalization of temples in the state as they are not allowing puja to be performed by other than the Saraswat Brahmins.” Dalits build the temples which are used by the Brahmins. This should be widely publicized so that the nazi parties will not get away with our votes to build Rama temples for the use of Brahmins.
V.S. Raja Patha, Trivandrum: You are pleading for the unity of the non-Hindu 85%, but the Congress Party in Kerala divided the very non-Hindus and won the election. So, to educate our people we need the © Malayalam DV which died due to want of funds. Through this letter am appealing to our Malayali comrades to help revive the Malayalam DV.
Rev. Phillips S. Masih, Pastor, Sadar Methodist Church, No.22-Cantt., Bareilly, UP-243 004: Recently read your article “Christians and Dalit Movement”. It is thought-provoking and educative. agree with your views on the church, share your fears and also express my sorrow over the plight of the Dalits.
M.D. John Sastry, Narendra Puram, E.G. dt., AP: feel the “educated” Dalits are a greater problem. They are serving the upper castes.
