As Dhule counts its dead, no lessons learnt from past riots – By Vinita Deshmukh (Jan 14, 2013, Tehelka)

Seventeen-year-old Aaseem Shaikh’s sister was going to get married in a couple of days when tragedy struck on 6 January. Shaikh became the first victim of police bullets in the riots that shook Dhule, a city in northwestern Maharashtra. “My son was on his way to deliver eggs at a customer’s house when he was shot,” says Naseem Mohammed Gulam Ahmed, his distraught father. Naseem Mohammed was out of town that afternoon and learnt of his son’s death only the next day. “The bullet pierced through his upper chest and he died before he reached the hospital. Why did the police fire at him?” A week after the riots broke out, battalions of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) took to the Mumbai-Agra national highway in several vehicles, to return to their respective units. That, though, has barely signalled the return of peace in Dhule, which is still under curfew intermittently in the 2 sq km downtown area where the riots had left six dead and 229 injured, including 113 policemen, as per official records.

The curfew might be completely lifted in some days, but anger against the law enforcement authorities, evident while talking to youngsters of the riot-hit area, may continue to simmer. In fact, residents point out that part of the ire that exploded into riots on 6 January can be traced back to 2008, when riots had left 11 dead and 552 injured. The October 2008 riots in Dhule, like the riots this time, had been concentrated in the two adjacent localities of Macchipura and Madhavpura, where nearly 50,000 people live, including both Hindus and Muslims. While most of the Muslims live in Macchipura, Madhavpura has a Hindu-majority population. The riots came a week after leaders of both the communities had given inflammatory speeches. Though the local media highlighted the issue and alerted the administration and the police, neither took it seriously and the riots were sparked when the poster of a religious leader was torn.

However, the kin of the six dead youngsters, all aged between 17 and 25, demand to know why the police fired to kill, and why the victims were all Muslims. Incidentally, none of the six dead belonged to the neighbourhood where the riots broke out. All of them hailed from different parts of Azadnagar suburb, about 3-4 km away from the riot-torn area. “My 24-year-old brother Imran Ali was shot in the heart and died instantly,” says Asif Ali. The fateful Sunday, 6 January, was an off day for Imran, who worked in an auto spares shop in Macchipura. However, that day he had gone to the locality to buy groceries, and did not return as usual by 4 pm. Instead, there was a phone call informing the family that Imran had been injured in a firing. Asif Ali says they were shocked; they did not even know that riots had broken out. Looking for his brother, Asif went first to Macchipura, but could not enter the area as there was heavy stone-pelting and the sound of gunfire. Then he went to the general hospital, where he was told that Imran was dead. “The police fired indiscriminately and my innocent brother has become the victim,” says Asif Ali.

Asif Patel, the uncle of another victim Saud Raees Patel, tells a similar story. Raees, 17, was shot, when he was on his way to buy fish from Macchipura. Raees was pursuing a diploma in electrical engineering. “Why did the police shoot him in the chest?” asks Patel, demanding a judicial inquiry into the riots and stringent punishment to those responsible for his nephew’s death. At the home of Deputy Tehsildar Abdul Halim Ansari, in Hazar Kohli colony of Azadnagar, a pall of gloom has shrouded the family ever since Ansari’s son Hafiz Asif, 30, was killed on 6 January. Hafiz used to run a grocery shop. His brother and uncle state politely, “Sorry, we are not speaking to anybody.” Ansari has still not got back to work.

The police response to the riots raises several questions. … Local NCP leader and corporator in Dhule, Shawwal Ansari, had witnessed the rioting and helped rush the injured to nearby hospitals. He says the police “deliberately fired at the people”. “I was there at the spot and saw the police firing start within 15-20 minutes after the riots began. This is exactly what they had done in 2008 also, and that is why many youngsters aged between 18 and 25 are against them,” he adds. Ansari also alleges the police targeted the Muslims, and after the riots subsided, “they damaged many vehicles parked outside the houses of Muslims”. He believes the six youngsters would not have died if senior police officers had restrained the policemen from firing too soon. …

http://tehelka.com/as-dhule-counts-its-dead-no-lessons-learnt-from-past-riots/?singlepage=1

SEE ALSO:

• It was a police action, not riot: Maharashtra legislator – By Aleem Faizee (Jan 14, 2013, Ummid.com)
  http://ummid.com/news/2013/January/14.01.2013/dhule_consolidated.htm

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The Forgotten Carnage of Bhagalpur – By Warisha Farasat (Jan 19, 2013, Economic& Political Weekly)

Two months before the riots, between 12 and 22 August 1989 on the occasion of Muharram and Bisheri Puja, communal passions were already running high in Bhagalpur, which had a history of communal clashes. However, the immediate trigger of the Bhagalpur riots was the five-day Ramshila programme of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). As part of a wider nation-wide Ram Janmabhoomi campaign, Ramshila – bricks for the proposed grand Ram Mandir (temple) in Ayodhya – were to be carried in five processions through the rural areas of Bhagalpur and converge on the 24th in the town. The growing influence of the right-wing forces to polarise society on communal lines had already vitiated the atmosphere and provocative actions during the processions made matters worse. The outbreak of communal violence on 24 October 1989 in Bhagalpur was preceded by a series of rumours spread by criminal elements that around 200 Hindu students living in lodges near the university area had been killed by Muslims. This was followed by another rumour that 31 Hindu boys had been murdered and their bodies dumped in a well at the Sanskrit College. As it turned out, both rumours were baseless, but they fanned the communal violence (Minorities Commission 1990: 242). A three-member Commission of Inquiry, which was established by the Bihar state government to investigate the Bhagalpur pogrom, concluded that the riots were triggered by the Ramshila procession (Sinha and Hasan 1995: 14). It also named several police officials, including the then superintendent of police, K S Dwivedi for failing to stop the violence and recommended further investigation into the role of the official machinery during the riots.

The Bhagalpur riots took place when the Congress was in power in Bihar and Jagannath Mishra was the chief minister. Rajiv Gandhi, then prime minister, during his visit to the riot-affected areas ordered that Dwivedi be immediately transferred because of his controversial role in the riots and anti-Muslim bias. However, the transfer orders triggered protests from the VHP and other Hindu right-wing forces, forcing Gandhi to rescind his orders (Chopra and Jha 2012). Even today, survivors note that had Dwivedi’s transfer order not been revoked at the time, many lives would have been saved since many of the worst atrocities took place after this. Indeed, the subsequent Commission of Inquiry constituted to probe the riots indicted Dwivedi and noted in its report: We would hold Dwivedi, the then superintendent of police, Bhagalpur, wholly responsible for whatever happened before 24 October 1989, on 24th itself and [after the] 24th. His communal bias was fully demonstrated not only by his manner of arresting the Muslims and by not extending them adequate help to protect them (Sinha and Hasan 1995: 114). The Congress government at the time did little to either stop the riots or provide relief and rehabilitation to the victims and their families. Even Lalu Prasad Yadav, who won the 1990 elections on a secular platform in Bihar, did not make enough effort to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Bhagalpur riots. Indeed, many among the survivors believe that Yadav avoided any action because many of the rioters who led the mobs against the Muslims belonged to his caste. Similarly, even the efforts of the current incumbent, Nitish Kumar, who heads a coalition of Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state, have been piecemeal, and the major issues of justice, accountability of police officers, and reparations remain unresolved. The wounds of the mass violence were kept open and festering; even now victims recount the brutality of the massacre and the lack of justice thereafter in great detail.

Though 23 years have passed, the victims of the communal carnage are still struggling, socially and financially. In only a handful of cases, such as the Chanderi and Logain massacres, have the guilty been punished. In Chanderi village, 65 Muslims were hacked with machetes and their bodies thrown into a pond. Mallika Begum – the sole surviving witness – courageously withstood all threats and enticements offered by the accused to secure the conviction of 16 persons who were involved in the massacre. In Logain village, 118 persons were slaughtered. To hide the truth, the perpetrators buried the bodies in the fields and subsequently planted cauliflower over this mass grave. Even in the handful of cases where the rioters were convicted, such as Kameshwar Yadav in the infamous Parbatti case, the witnesses live under fear of reprisal. While Kameshwar Yadav was involved in many killings and incidents of leading the mob during the riots, he was finally convicted in 2007 for the murder of Mohammad Munna, son of Bibi Waleema, who was a resident of Parbatti area in Bhagalpur town (Yadav 2007). No protection or support was provided to these witnesses who testified against the rioters. A relative of Bibi Waleema, who is a street vendor, told us that he has stopped selling goods in his locality and now plies his trade far away as he fears for his life.

The most heartbreaking challenge for the victims of the Bhagalpur riots is their struggle against forgetfulness. The brutality of the mass violence committed against the Muslims has faded out of public memory even as the victims await justice and rehabilitation. The stories of the murder of around 1,000 Muslims – men, women and children hacked with machetes, entire families killed and dumped in ponds, or people locked inside their homes and burnt alive – are now remembered only by the survivors or the immediate families of the victims who have been fighting a lonely battle. The People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), Delhi was perhaps one of the few civil society groups that documented the riots in detail, particularly the role and complicity of the police in the rioting (People’s Union for Democratic Rights 1996). Apart from PUDR’s effort, there have been intermittent visits from individual activists to meet with the survivors and the victims’ families. Overall, there has been very little documentation or support extended by human rights groups to the survivors of the carnage. The official records of the Bhagalpur riots, alongside other major instances of communal violence, have been comparatively examined and analysed extensively in an earlier report by the Centre for Equity Studies (CES) titledAccountability for Mass Violence: Examining the State’s Record (Chopra and Jha 2012). This report provides a fresh insight into the mechanics of communal violence at the four sites – Bhagalpur (Bihar), Gujarat, Nelli (Assam) and Delhi (the anti-Sikh riots of 1984) – and concludes that the state has failed to punish the perpetrators or provide adequate compensation to the victims and their families. …

Even K S Dwivedi, who was indicted by the Bhagalpur Commission of Inquiry, was never punished, and the current state government promoted him as an additional director general rank officer (Bihar Times 2011). Most recently, he was made additional director general (wireless and technical services) by the state government. Instead of facing investigation and prosecution, several officers named in the Bhagalpur Commission of Inquiry or Sharma’s report, have been promoted. Even more reprehensible and condemnable is that Dwivedi has been awarded the president’s medal on the eve of Independence Day this year for distinguished services despite having been held directly responsible for the Bhagalpur riots by the Commission of Inquiry (The Times of India 2012). As our research reveals, successive governments of different political parties have failed to comprehensively address the issues of justice accountability, reparations and rehabilitation of victims of the 1989 communal violence in Bihar. Similarly, the compensation policy has also failed to provide the much-needed acknowledgement and support to the victims/survivors. CES has tried to engage the Bihar state government, and has submitted policy-based recommendations, which we hope will also help the government in redesigning the compensation policy for the riot victims. Even if the Bhagalpur riots have faded from public memory, the horrors are still alive amongst the survivors in Bhagalpur who are still awaiting meaningful justice and reparations. But, perhaps, the most important learning is that communalism pervades our societal fabric, and there needs to be a collective response to ensure that it does not result in violence and discrimination based on religious affiliations.

http://www.epw.in/insight/forgotten-carnage-bhagalpur.html

SEE ALSO:

• Sufferings Of The Orissa Victims Still Cotinue – By Countercurrents.org (Jan 10, 2013, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/cc100113D.htm

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Fifteen Minutes of Infamy – Editorial (Jan 19, 2013, Economic & Political Weekl)

In the five decades of its existence the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) has remained a minor player in the politics of Andhra Pradesh representing a section of the Muslims of Hyderabad. It now has a few members in the legislative assembly and one member in the Lok Sabha. However, a recent speech given by its legislature party leader, Akbaruddin Owaisi, in Adilabad has suddenly catapulted it to national prominence and the MIM has been subjected to intense scrutiny by mainstream and social media. Akbaruddin is in jail, finally arrested by the police for spreading hate among communities and waging war against the country. The most quoted of his outrageous statements was one where he said that if the police was removed from the country for 15 minutes, India’s 25 crore Muslims (a fancy number in itself when the census states it is 13.8 crore) would teach a lesson to 100 crore “Hindustanis”. Akbaruddin made other incendiary statements as well and it is only proper that he has been arrested. However, the interesting thing is that he has been making similar speeches for at least 15 years, carrying on the “fiery” oratory tradition of his father, Salahuddin Owaisi.

The MIM under Qasim Rizvi defended the “independence” of an Islamic state of Hyderabad under the Nizam at the time of Independence in 1947. It organised the “Razakars” (a mercenary army) infamous for its violence and killings of communist partisans and Hindu subjects of the Nizam. It was banned after Hyderabad state’s merger with the Indian Union in 1948 but was revived by Rizvi, in 1957, in the 48 hours he had between being released from prison and leaving for Pakistan. It is common knowledge this was part of a deal with the Government of India to undercut the popularity of the Communist Party of India in Hyderabad by propping up the MIM to wean Muslims away from it. Rizvi appointed Abdul Wahab Owaisi as president of the revived MIM before leaving for Pakistan.

In its second incarnation the MIM gave up its demand for an Islamic state but adopted aggressive Muslim fundamentalism to weld an electorally viable political bloc. It took some time but by 1969 the MIM got its first member in the legislative assembly, slowly increasing that number to about half a dozen. In 1984, the MIM won the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat and has remained undefeated since. The secret of its electoral success has been the sense of security it has provided Hyderabad’s Muslims who have suffered, since Independence, regular bouts of intense violence at the hands of an aggressive Hindu right as well as an insensitive state administration. The growing muscle of the MIM has neutralised this violence and since 1990, when the last major communal violence took place in Hyderabad in the aftermath of L K Advani’s “rath yatra”, there has not been any major incident in the city. Media reports and academic research both suggest that Hyderabad’s Muslims vote for the MIM largely because of the security it provides and the space this has opened for Muslims to pursue business, jobs, education and recreation without fear. The growing public profile and self-confidence of the Muslims of Hyderabad has also helped sustain a politics which foregrounds their cultural assertion.

However, this success has also limited the MIM to parts of the city and one community, and retarded its growth. Akbaruddin’s brother, Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi, tried to transform the MIM into a broad platform of marginalised communities, Muslims as well as lower caste Hindus by giving tickets to non-Muslims in local body elections. While this strategy proved unsuccessful (mainly due to the inability of the MIM to let go of its religious core), Akbaruddin’s political line of returning to the aggressive politics of Muslim fundamentalism has paid rich electoral dividends. The MIM recently won an unprecedented 11 seats in municipal elections in Nanded in neighbouring Maharashtra. It was in pursuit of this strategy that the MIM formed the United Muslim Action Committee with the All India Muslim Personal Law Board office-bearer, Abdur Rahim Qureshi, as its convenor, and had recently withdrawn support from the Congress-led governments in Delhi and Hyderabad.

It remains a matter of conjecture as to why this particular speech suddenly caught national attention. A major role has been of new media and social networks where a video of Akbaruddin’s speech went “viral”, forcing attention by the mainstream media, government and judiciary. While the wheels of justice move indecisively and slowly, the political ramifications of this unexpected trial of Akbaruddin are significant. By foregrounding “Muslim” hate of Hindus, this speech will give a fillip to the Bharatiya Janata Party and other Hindutva forces not just in Andhra Pradesh but around the country. In Hyderabad, this will lead to a further consolidation of Muslims behind the MIM, leading to a strengthening of communal politics. The fact that action has only been taken against a “Muslim” leader when scores of Hindu extremists have said worse things but remain untouched by the law will further polarise opinion. The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh is playing both sides. It has charged Akbaruddin with sedition to win “Hindu” votes, an accusation that is unlikely to stand up to legal scrutiny. The MIM leader will then be freed and this will thus keep the “Muslims” happy. The coming forward of progressive forces to denounce Akbaruddin’s speech and the public outrage over his comments will hopefully not only scuttle attempts to let him off the hook, they should also force a reluctant state to initiate action against all other hate-mongers. Anything less will be too dangerous to contemplate.

http://www.epw.in/editorials/fifteen-minutes-infamy.html

SEE ALSO:

• The Man Who Spins Words In Sulphur – By Madhavi Tata (Jan 21, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?283499

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A nation outraged – By T.K. Rajalakshmi (Jan 12, 2013, Frontline)

If ever there was one incident in recent times that numbed the whole nation, it was the horrific gang rape and violence perpetrated on the 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus in Delhi on the night of December 16. The young woman died nearly a fortnight later, after battling for life, first at the Safdarjung Hospital in the capital city and later in a hospital in Singapore where she was airlifted for treatment following severe infection requiring an intestinal transplant. Her death left India shell-shocked. Protests that began after the incident became public knowledge grew in mammoth proportions. The incident was the trigger, and what followed was a response to the every-day reality faced by women, especially those who use public transport. This was perhaps the first time young people, schoolchildren and college students poured out into the streets on the issue of violence against women, and the media threw its entire weight behind the protests.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s handling of the situation added to the general feeling of shock and outrage. The government took time to react, preferring to confine itself to pleas for peaceful protests and restricting the movement of the protesters by barricading all roads leading to India Gate in New Delhi (policing in the capital city is the responsibility of the Union Home Ministry). Oblivious to the belligerent mood of the people, the government continued issuing banal statements one after the other. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first statement with regard to the incident, which came on December 23, was more like an appeal meant to assuage the protests. “We will make all possible efforts to ensure security and safety to all women in this country,” he said. At best the government looked at the incident in isolation as a “heinous crime”, grossly underestimating the anger and resentment that it had aroused. With each passing day, crowds swelled at various points in Delhi. Whether they were organised or not or lumpen or civilised, there was genuine anger.

This perhaps led to the six perpetrators getting apprehended in record time, which indicated that the police could swing into action if they wanted to. The government immediately set up two commissions, both headed by retired judges, one to inquire into the incident and the other to look into a long-standing demand by women’s organisations, to widen the definition of sexual assault. It was in September 2012 that these organisations had submitted a memorandum to the Union Law Minister reminding him of the changes required on the lines suggested by them. Sensing the public mood as the victim’s condition worsened, there was a turnabout in the government’s thinking. The Union Cabinet met on December 26, a full 10 days after the incident, and decided to set up a commission of inquiry with Justice Usha Mehra, a retired judge of the Delhi High Court, as its chairperson. The main role of the commission is to fix responsibility for lapses or negligence on the part of the police or any other authority or person and to suggest measures to improve the safety and security of women in Delhi and the rest of the National Capital Region. The commission has been given a time frame of three months. On December 27, the Prime Minister, while addressing the National Development Council (NDC) meeting, made a more definite statement: “Let me state categorically that the issue of safety and security of women is of the highest concern to our government.” He also announced the setting up of another commission, under the chairmanship of Justice J.S. Verma, retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, to review various laws, including punishment for aggravated forms of sexual assault.

Perhaps, for the first time in its history, the NDC took cognisance of an issue of violence against women. It is unfortunate that it took a brutal rape and murder in the capital to force the country’s leadership to react. Whether it was meant to quell the protests and calm down the opposition parties or was a sincere attempt to deal with the issue was not clear. The Prime Minister merely stated the obvious: “Gender inequality is another important aspect, which deserves special attention. Women and girls represent half the population and our society has not been fair to this half. Their socio-economic status is improving, but gaps persist. The emergence of women in public spaces, which is an absolutely essential part of social emancipation, is accompanied by growing threats to their safety and security.” Meanwhile, the Delhi government, led by Congress Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, called for a ban on tinted glass windows for motor vehicles and for enhanced policing. It also deliberated on recommending the death penalty for certain kinds of violence against women. Amid all this began a battle of attrition between the Chief Minister and Delhi’s Commissioner of Police. …

The processes that are producing incidents such as the one currently in focus are complex and need to be addressed comprehensively. Focus on quick-fix solutions like the death penalty or chemical castration or even community action, a euphemism for public lynching, apart from the fact that it may not be any kind of a solution, distracts attention from this. Addressing it in a comprehensive manner would mean looking at the entire gamut of discriminatory laws, judgments, policies, and portrayals of women in the media and questioning the larger socio-economic determinants that not only impede the complete participation of women in society at large but also create the conditions for the kind of outrage witnessed on December 16. There are wider social and economic processes and policy decisions that constitute the central cause of the growing crime graph. Ensuring the safety and security of women cannot be confined to platitudes; it requires a proper understanding of the systemic faults that lie behind the escalation of such crimes. Provisioning of infrastructure, tightening of laws, setting up of fast-track courts, speedy trials, and better policing of the roads might be a part of the wider solution, but the processes that shape mindsets and attitudes need to be corrected first. And that cannot happen in a society where everything, including women, are viewed as commodities.

http://flonnet.com/fl3001/stories/20130125300100400.htm

SEE ALSO:

• ‘All of Us Wanted Her to Wake Up. But She Never Did.’ – Badri Singh with Chandrani Banerjee (Jan 21, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?283524
• Distressing chronicle – By V. Venkatesan (Jan 12, 2013, Frontline)
  http://flonnet.com/fl3001/stories/20130125300101800.htm
• We shouldn’t play into hands of netas blaming movies for rapes – By Shougat Dasgupta (Jan 11, 2013, Tehelka)
  http://tehelka.com/editors-cut-we-should-not-play-into-the-hands-of-netas-blaming-movies-songs-for-rapes/
• Crime in transit – By T.K. Rajalakshmi (Jan 12, 2013, Frontline)
  http://flonnet.com/fl3001/stories/20130125300101000.htm

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Reluctant state – By Kirti Singh (Jan 12, 2013, Frontline)

The recent incident of gang rape of a 23-year-old girl by six men in a moving bus in Delhi triggered a nationwide response from citizens, including women and young girls who have been subjected to various forms of sexual harassment and assault for as long as they can remember. Every time they stepped out of their homes, walked on the streets or boarded a bus or train, they risked and continue to risk being harassed and groped and subjected to unwelcome sexual touching. However, instead of their harassers being targeted, their freedom of movement and their right to choose what they will wear and to associate with whomever they want are restricted. These women and others who marched with them demanded justice and severe punishment for those who had raped the young girl and beaten and assaulted her and her friend. Some people also demanded that the police be held accountable and punished for failing to prevent this and other rapes or sexual assaults from taking place. They demanded more stringent laws against rape and other forms of sexual assault.

A government that had ignored such demands for decades suddenly swung into action when it realised the extent and uncontrollability of the public anger. It claimed the girl was given the best medical treatment. A speedy investigation of the case was carried out in about two weeks and a charge sheet filed. In another knee-jerk reaction, a high-level committee comprising former Chief Justice of India Justice J.S. Verma was constituted to suggest “laws to provide for quicker trials and enhanced punishment for criminals accused of committing sexual assault of extreme nature against women” [sic]. The Home Minister asked all political parties to send this committee their suggestions for changes in the law. However, the limited terms of reference of this committee, which is only supposed to suggest harsher punishment and measures for speedier justice, show that the government is not serious about bringing comprehensive and holistic changes to the laws and procedures relating to sexual assaults.

A commission headed by Justice Usha Mehra, former judge of the Delhi High Court, has also been set up to inquire into the various aspects of the incident and to “identify the lapses, if any, on the part of the police or other authority or person that contributed to the occurrence and fix responsibility for the lapses and/or negligence on the part of the police or any other authority or person”. The commission has to suggest “measures to improve the safety and security of women, particularly in NCT [National Capital Territory] of Delhi and NCR [National Capital Region].” This commission has obviously been constituted to deflect the demand by various women’s organisations for the removal of the Delhi Police Commissioner and other high officials for not putting in place and enforcing safety of women and other preventive measures which had been agreed upon. A number of measures to improve the safety and security of women in Delhi had been suggested to the police following cases of rape, murder and sexual assaults in the past. The police were to map Delhi and identify areas where women are most vulnerable to assault. Following this, there were to be increased patrolling in these areas and improved lighting on the streets and in places like public toilets in the city.

It was also decided that buses, taxis and other modes of transport would not be allowed to ply with tinted windows; the police were to enforce this rule. However, neither did patrolling substantially improve even in vulnerable areas nor did the police enforce the rule against using tinted windows. The bus in which the gang rape took place had tinted windows and had passed through several police check points when the assault was on. VIP and VVIP security continues to be prioritised over and above the security of citizens, including women, in Delhi and more than 30 per cent of the police force is deployed for this. In their memorandum to the Police Commissioner after the gang rape, the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) and other national women’s organisations demanded that the police should follow Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in all cases of sexual assault. These procedures should mandate the police to register a case immediately, send the complainant for medical examination, collect the evidence, including clothes, at the spot, and carry out the investigation in a time-bound manner, the memorandum said. It demanded punishment for the police personnel concerned if they do not follow this procedure.

From time to time the Delhi Police have issued certain standing orders, including Standing Order No. 303/2010, which lay down certain guidelines for the police in cases of rape. Though further changes can be suggested to them, these guidelines were a step in the right direction. They stipulate that a woman police officer shall be present in each police station, that “the victim” and her “family” shall be made “comfortable” and that the investigating officer along with the woman police officer shall escort the “victim” for medical examination. The order also stipulates that no “victim” of sexual assault shall be called or made to stay in the police station during the night and that the statement of the “victim” shall be recorded in private in the presence of family members unless it is a case of “incest”. Further, it says that the investigation shall be supervised by an Assistant Commissioner of Police and that the information on the case be immediately given to the rape crisis cell. In the case of children, it is mandated that the statement of the “victim” shall be recorded at her residence and that the child shall be medically examined within 24 hours and her clothing promptly sent for forensic examination. It has also been stated that private hospitals shall give immediate medical attention to the complainant and that the medical examination shall be carried out after psychiatric help is made available to the child. These mandates shall also apply to women who need immediate medical help and counselling after they are sexually assaulted, the guidelines say. These orders were issued following the directions of the Delhi High Court in judgments in 2003, 2007 and 2008. However, these standing orders are rarely followed in letter or spirit. …

http://flonnet.com/fl3001/stories/20130125300101700.htm

SEE ALSO:

• Rape. And how men see it – By Shoma Chaudhury (Jan 10, 2013, Tehelka)
  http://tehelka.com/cover-story-rape-and-how-men-see-it/?singlepage=1
• Citizens united – By Sagnik Dutta (Jan 12, 2013, Frontline)
  http://flonnet.com/fl3001/stories/20130125300101100.htm
• An Unsung Nirbhaya In Kandhamal – By Asha Kowtal (Jan 14, 2013, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/kowtal140113.htm
• Portrayals of rape – By Shashi Kumar (Jan 12, 2013, Frontline)
  http://flonnet.com/fl3001/stories/20130125300101400.htm

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Where buying a motorcycle can spark a riot – By S. Anandhi, M. Vijayabaskar (Jan 7, 2013, The Hindu)

In the recent violence against the Dalits in Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu, about 300 of their houses were burnt down and other properties destroyed by the Vanniars, a numerically strong intermediate caste, sections of whom have been economically stagnant. The immediate cause for the rampage was a Vanniar woman’s marriage to a Dalit youth and the consequent suicide of the woman’s father. However, the large-scale and systematic destruction of Dalit properties was a result of the simmering discontent against the upward mobility of the Dalits. The growing intolerance of the intermediate castes towards this economic mobility of the Dalits is not confined to Dharmapuri district alone. In the last two decades, 11 districts in the State have witnessed similar destruction of Dalit property as part of caste violence. There are two aspects to this Dalit mobility and the resultant violence against them. One is the declining of role of agriculture in rural Tamil Nadu and its impact on the social and economic relations within villages. The second is the specific ways in which the changing economic relations have been negotiated through altered caste and gender relations posing challenges to the intermediate caste’s pre-existing power.

Across Tamil Nadu, the role of agriculture in sustaining rural livelihoods has dramatically declined with non-farm employment increasingly playing a significant role. A recent survey of rural households in four districts in the State done by the Institute of Development Alternatives, Chennai reveals that only 28 per cent of households rely on agriculture solely for their livelihood. In the remainder, at least one member of the household was engaged in non-agricultural employment, ranging from construction work to a range of manufacturing sector jobs. This resonates strongly with the observations made about the “commuting worker” in contemporary rural and urban landscapes. In Tamil Nadu alone, more than 72 lakh workers commuted from rural areas to work in non-agricultural sectors. This mobility is highly gendered with the age profile indicating the emergence of a young male workforce. This mobility has been accompanied by a new mobility of capital too. Studies indicate a growing ruralisation of the formal manufacturing sector in the last 15 years, with its output increasingly coming from the rural areas even as urban manufacturing employment is becoming more informal.

It is in this context that one needs to understand Dalit mobility in parts of Tamil Nadu. The spread of a range of manufacturing activity in small towns in Tamil Nadu and its diffusion into the nearby villages have spawned new rural-urban and rural-rural mobilities and a move into manufacturing and service sector jobs among Dalit youth, particularly in the northern and north-western districts. This mobility has also been backed by investments in education albeit of a limited kind. The move away from traditional agricultural work has undermined the control that the intermediate castes could wield on Dalit youth. Fieldwork in villages adjoining and housing textile and clothing factories in the Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts, and shoe factories in Vellore district reveal not only a striking shift from agricultural work among the Dalit youth, but also a strong reluctance among them to take up agricultural work.

The mobility beyond the village has enabled Dalit youth to challenge their traditional caste obligations and the masculine powers of the dominant castes. The refusal of Dalit women to perform menial duties for intermediate castes, the refusal of the younger generation of Dalits to labour in the lands of intermediate castes and to perform caste obligations such as funeral drumming – combined with relative improvements in their every day existence – have become the source of conflicts between the Dalits and the intermediate castes in the State. The inability and reluctance of sections of intermediate castes to make a shift from agriculture despite its non profitability due to strong social values attached to agriculture, their inability to force the castes below them to work on their farms and their lack of control over the mobility of Dalit youth have underwritten their caste anxieties.

Further, caste dominance is contingent upon the masculine power of men, their ability to control women in private and public spheres and also their ability to control the subordinate men of oppressed castes. With the challenge posed to their caste dominance, the intermediate castes find their masculinity in crisis since they are unable to exert power over the subaltern Dalit men and women. They also imagine an erosion of their masculine power in the private sphere with their claim that Dalit men lure away “their women.” The crisis of intermediate caste masculinity, which is the result of the economic mobility of the Dalits, is certainly at the core of these conflicts and the caste violence which targets Dalit properties. Otherwise, how can one explain the fact that invariably during the caste violence in recent times, motorbikes owned by the Dalits, a symbol of masculine mobility, have been targeted by the intermediate castes who desire to imitate the erstwhile dominant castes in their starched white dhotis moving on Enfield motorbikes!

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/where-buying-a-motorcycle-can-spark-a-riot/article4280216.ece

SEE ALSO:

• Mainstreaming the subaltern – By K. Satchidanandan (Jan 12, 2013, Frontline)
  http://flonnet.com/fl3001/stories/20130125300107700.htm
• FDI in Retail and Dalit Entrepreneurs – By Anand Teltumbde (Jan 19, 2013, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/margin-speak/fdi-retail-and-dalit-entrepreneurs.html
• Rape And Murder Of Dalit And Minority Girls In Kandhamal – Fact Finding Report – By Concerned Citizens (Jan 14, 2013, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/cc140113C.htm
• Caste in Tamil Nadu – A History of Nadar Censorship – By M S S Pandian (Jan 19, 2013, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/commentary/caste-tamil-nadu.html

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