Hodari Abdul-Ali, Aishah Wright Abdullah, 3712 – Kennady Place, Hyattsville, MD-20782, USA: Happy to have met you at the Popular Front of India massive conference in Bangalore on Feb.17. I have read your book, Dalit – The Black Untouchables of India published in America and in fact, have sold the book in my bookstores for many years. I was excited to meet you. I am a Muslim of African- American descent who has combined a career of business, journalism and community activism. I graduated from Howard. Currently I am a programmer with radio station WPFW in Washington D.C … From 1977-1984, I founded and operated Liberation Information Distributing co. which became a leading wholesaler of books and periodicals about Africa, African Americans and Islam across the United States. In 1981, I founded Pyramid Books in Washington DC which by 1990 grew to become the 1st chain of independent African- American-owned and oriented bookstores in the US with additional locations in Maryland and California. Since 1995 I operated Dar Es Salaam Books/Health Centre in suburban Washington DC.
Dr. Awatar S. Sekhon, Box-60246, University of Alberta Postal Outlet, Edmonton, AB T6G 2S5, Canada: Congratulations on Dalit Voice (Bangalore) report, “Hindu shit falls on Hindu head” (DV Feb.16, 2007 p. 7). Dalit Voice bi-weekly, published from Bangalore for nearly three decades, deserves special congratulations and admirations for the expression of views of over 85% of India’s oppressed by the Brahmin autocracy. This so-called the largest democracy of our world, is practising apartheid. Many congratulations to the Dalit Voice and its founder V.T. Rajshekar for exposing this apartheid. The victims of which are the Sikhs and citizens of the internationally disputed areas of Kashmir, Muslims in general, Dalits, Assamese, Manipuris, Tamils, Adivasis and other minorities. Members of the non-Hindu and non-Brahmin communities of the world should demonstrate their solidarity by flooding the office of Dalit Voice by sending their congratulatory messages to: vtr@ndf.vsnl.net.in and dalitvoice@rediffmail.com. (visit www.dalitvoice.org).
Suvash Dharnal, Chairperson, Jagaran Media Centre, Buddhanagar, Kathmandu, Nepal: I am interested in reading your literature and work closely with you. In Nepal, now we are preparing to open our own FM Radio station Jagaran Radio.
Palash Biswas, c/o Mrs. Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Calcutta – 700 110: Bengal has been traditionally a land inhabited by the indigenous Mool Nivasi non-Aryans. Till the Mahabharata, it was nowhere within the Aryavarta geopolitics. Brahmins treated it as a forbidden land. The Pal Dynasty rulers were Dalits. Then came Karnataki Vjay Sen who imported five Kanyakubj Bahmins who transformed the entire Bengali population including the Budhists into Hindu shudra. Since then, the Brahminical rulers enjoy unchallenged power and status snatching state power from British rulers with whom they co- operated while the masses always resisted the British imperialism. The Brahmins have historically posed themselves as Hindu philosophers, teachers and priests. Aryans, physically weaker and mentally cunning, decided to conquer Dravidians through the “divide and rule” technique (such as Vanashrama) they invented. Later it was called Brahminism but now it is Hinduism. An ex-zamindar and ex-chief minister of Bengal, Jyoti Basu, supports Chief Minister Buddhadev on farmland acquisition (SEZ) because both stand for Brahminical supremacy in Bengal. Basu masterminded land reforms in Bengal but today he is backtracking. Muhammad Yunus announced his decision to enter politics in Calcutta after discussing it with Brahminical leaders. Meanwhile at Habra, (North 24 Parganas), Mohit Roy lunched the campaign against Muslims in Bangladesh. Mohit Roy is considered close to Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Naushad Ansari, B-11, Bhaskar Compound, New Delhi – 110 025: The Letter of Brother Farooq Bawani (DV Feb. 16, 2007) calling Syed Shahabuddin hostile is disappointing and shows the writer’s ignorance of the most prominent Indian Muslim leader. After demolishing Babari Masjid, there had been efforts to bulldoze Muslim leadership too, or at least to defame or dwarf them. Bawani has seemingly got misled by the same. I don’t find any Muslim leader or intellectual who has opposed and exposed Brahminical people with such force and honesty as Syed Shahabuddin. Recognizing the same, once Syed Hamid had commented that ‘Some years ago Syed Shahabuddin was the best to lead (Muslims). But people did not support him’. Syed Shahabuddin has all along pleaded that the problem of Muslims should be given a place on, as he puts it, the “national agenda”. He always raised the genuine grievances of Indian Muslims and their legitimate aspirations but within the context of a secular order and with a nationalist motive. He worked as a bridge between the traditionalists and the modernists, between the ulema and the modern, between the Hindus and the Muslims, between the English-speaking elite and the Urdu-speaking masses. Such superlative level of integrity and sincerity is surely not liked by opportunists and corrupt people.
S. Akhtar, Khanpur Deh, Bharuch dt. – 392 150: Brother Muhammed Ali’s Letter (DV Feb.1, 2007) exposing plots of cat-like Brahmins for trapping rat- like Dalits in cage-like mandirs deserves to be published in Hindi and other Indian languages for wider circulation. I have sent its Gujarati version to the Anjuman Voice (Bharuch-392 001).
Devaraj Hosahally, EWS-59, Vth Cross, IInd Main, Gangothri Hudco, Mysore – 570 009: Thank you for your support and suggestions for my intellectual development. I want to organise the students in Mysore and invite you to attend this. I am a student at the University of Mysore. Last semester BA (Geography, Psychology and English literature) in Maharaja’s College, Mysore. I am also the general secretary of Bahujana Vidhyarthi Sangha and native of Vadera Hosahally, Hunsur Taluk. I want to become an English professor and a writer. I would like to study at JNU, Delhi. But I am from a poor Dalit family.
M. Ali, (recent Dalit convert to Islam), UP: This refers to Brother Dr. Bharat Jhunjhunwala’s (Jan.2007) article in the Hindi dailies, Aaj and Amar Ujala, published from many cities all over UP and Bihar. He supports the Editor V.T. Rajshekar’s theses propounded in your recent book, Development Redefined, (DSA-2006). He refers to your observations that Dalits need cultural revolution to attain economic development. BJP concentrates on strengthening the “cultural aspects” like Babri Masjid, anti-Pakistan stand, cow protection, astrology, anti-religious conversion and Sanskrit etc. so that their ilk should be strong enough to grasp the opportunity of economic development. Similarly, Dalits should study their culture and history to strengthen their cultural roots so that they could grasp the opportunity for economic development. Bharat has cited your view that our govt. leaders should visit Udaipur or the home of Bhagat and bow before the fire or Dhuni there, which is a cultural and religious tradition of Adivasis. The inside title of the article is “national thinking”, and he has profusely used your name as “Shri Rajshekar”, editor of Dalit Voice. The six-column title in Hindi asks: “Why economic development of Dalits does not happen?” I am enclosing the clipping of the article in Hindi. This article must have been published in other Hind dailies and periodicals because Dr. Bharat Jhunjhunwala’s articles appear in many publications. It seems the cowbelt writers and media have started taking some interests in Dalit literature and also in your writings. Bravo. If Dr. Bharat writes more on Editor V.T. Rajshekar not only he will come closer to the hearts of Dalits, but the Hindi dailies circulation will also improve. I assure this.
Dalit Bandhu, (dalitbandu@yahoo.com): My 107th book in Malayalam, Dalavakulam, was published on Feb.2 at Cochin at the 32nd anniversary of the Kerala History Congress which was also my 79th birthday. Dalava means chief minister of Travancore. In 1806, Veloo Thambi was the Dalava of Travancore. At Vaikom, he butchered some 200 and odd Backward Caste people and buried their bodies in a pond near the Vaikom temple. They tried to recapture their old prayer hall while they were Budhists. They publicly entered the temple and tried to capture it. Veloo Thambi sent his military under the leadership of Vaikom Padmanabha Pillai and butchered them. The army entered their homes and captured those hiding. My book investigates all this. Vaikom was an old Budhist center of Kerala. The Vihar at Vaikom was captured by the Brahmins some 400 years ago and converted into their temple and dedicated to Siva. The Budhists have been trying to capture it. Most of them were Ezhavas. A village near Vaikom is called Pothy to remember Pothiyil Mala, the once famous Budhist centre in South India. The Adivasis residing in Aghastya Koodam Hills even now call it Pothiyil Mala. Vaikom is famous for the “Vaikom Satyagraha” (1924-25). I have written four books on this satyagraha. The Vaikom municipality gave the Dalavakulam for a private bus stand. The descendents of Budhists now call themselves Hindus. They do not know that their ancestors were Budhists. Nobody wants to know their past. This is our tragedy.
J. John, Executive Director, Centre for Education & Communication, 173-A, Khirkhi Village, Malaviya Nagar, New Delhi – 110 017: Although the system of bonded labour stands legally abolished by enactment of Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976, the problem continues to. Persist widely in India. The official accounts for the incidence of bonded labour don’t quite reveal the magnitude of the problem, independent surveys by reputed agencies place the total number of people mixed in different forms of bonded labour at tens of millions. Without doubt, it is the worst form of enslavement and labour exploitation, which has its genesis in the feudal structure and caste system but has transmitted from traditional to emerging new societies and economies by producing itself to the requirements of new economy and production relations. We are organising a national convention on bonded labour from March 9-11, 2007, at Jalandhar, Punjab, for which we need your presence as an expert.
Thanks for inviting us to the meeting. NGOS are a real menace — raising all sorts of irrelevant questions to deliberately sidetrack the burning problems facing India. At least 95% of the bonded labour in India are our people Dadlits. Instead of directly talking about Dalits, the victims of Hindu racism, you try to dilufe the world’s most serious problem of racism to please your Brahminical masters and get awards and rewards. Hundreds of NGOs have sprung up all over India, most of them headed by upper castes, to deceive our people and make money. We are not interested in such publicity stunts — EDITOR.
Sumanta Banerjee, ¢c/o Economic & Political Weekly, Bombay (sumansban@yahoo.com): I found your latest book, Development Redefined, very challenging. The other books are also very relevant in today’s context – particularly on the Dalit issue. The daily reports of discrimination, humiliation and lynching that come out in the newspapers fill me with utter disgust. No amount of persuasion, gandhian appeal to conscience, can change the attitude of the orthodox upper caste people. They think that ‘concessions’ like permission to enter Hindu temples would satisfy the Dalits. My question to those Dalit leaders who are agitating for such entry: why should they care to enter Hindu temples? Don’t give adman about Hindu rituals and customs. Instead of conforming to them and trying to find a place (inferior) in Hindu religious society, rebel against them. Only firm action by the state, strict prosecution of the guilty, along with organized political movement by the Dalits (not the Mayavati type) can lift this society from the dung heap of age-old casteist prejudices.
Matilal Mandal, Babasaheb Ambedkar Social Welfare Organisation, 942 – Green Park, G.T. Road, Bandel, Sahaganj PO – 712 104: Farmers of Bengal (SC/ST/OBC/RMs), who comprise 75% out of the 93.8% Bahujan population of W. Bengal, have been made to fight each other instigated by the upper caste-controlled CPM and is govt. CPM. This party has been dominating the state politics with the strength of OBCs and Muslims. It secured an absolute majority (186 seats out of 294) in the state Assembly in 2006. Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya has been forcibly acquiring farmlands and presenting it to Tatas, Birlas, Salim, Ambani, Ambuja, Jindal etc. The non-CPM farmers are opposing it. But its paid goondas are attacking and killing them. Both Trinamool at Singur and CPI at Nandigram are supporting the non-CPM farmers not because they love them but to keep their vote-banks intact. Rich peasants of Singur have willingly handed over nearly 400 acres of land to the govt. to teach a lesson to their lease-based tillers. The pro-CPM peasants have also handed over about 200 acres of land under pressure. The poor non-CPM peasants holding 400 acres of land are fighting.
P.S. Sadar, 71 – Kotwalnagar, Nagpur – 440 022: This refers to the Editor’s note “Maratha-Kunbi hate Brahmins but love Brahminism” (DV Feb.1, 2007 p.7). Though very painful to admit, it is a fact that the Kunbi-Maratha leadership is ever ready to please Brahmins. But the Kunbi-Maratha masses are happy over the rise of Dalits, particularly the Mahars. They find in the latter a ray of hope to come out of the quagmire of Brahminism. The Maratha political leaders are completely sold out to the Brahmins. But Brother Purushottam Khedekar and his Maratha Seva Sangh is still in infant stage and not in a position to confront the Brahmins. The Khairlanji massacre was engineered by the manuwadis with the help of the local BJP/Shiv Sena MLA. It was intended to provoke and test the Mahars. But the Mahar youth gave a fitting reply to the machinations of the Brahmins. That the Kunbi-Maratha youth did not fall a prey to the incitement from the Brahmin-controlled MLA using the OBC slogan. This itself is a very heartening development. Your report has given me a new insight vis a vis the term “Brahmin and Brahminism”. We must perform a double taski.e. to fight the Brahmin as well as Brahminism injected into other castes including the Maratha-Kunbi. I attended the “Jijamata birth anniversary” function and the third anniversary of the Shiva Dharma revelation ceremony at Sindakhed Raja, Buldana dt. on Jan.12. In his speech, Brother Khedekar gave a call “to finish the Brahmin”. No toilet paper reported his speech. The audience was around 1lakh this year. Thanking you for giving a new insight to the Bahujan] readership.
