Archive for the ‘General’ Category

India’s Disjointed Prosperity

Posted by samathain on March 18, 2010

By TIM SEBASTIAN

Published: March 15, 2010

NEW DELHI — When Madan Lal began work here among the madness, color and chaos of the Janpath pavement, Richard Nixon was in the White House and there wasn’t a main street shop anywhere in the world selling computers.

At the age of 15 he sat down on the uneven concrete, in exactly the same place occupied by his father, and began shining the shoes of tourists and anyone else with the luxury of footwear to polish.

Behind him the rickshaws and hooting cars sped past, the world underwent cosmic change and 40 years on, with considerably fewer teeth, his hands engrained with shoe polish and a dirty yellow sweatband across his forehead, he’s still there.

But his is not a story of dire misfortune — at least in Indian terms. His daily income of around $4 puts him ahead of no less than several hundred million of his countrymen, he can buy medicine for his son with a heart condition. He has married off his daughters and can afford to feed himself and his wife.

Life in India, could be and mostly is much, much worse.

And yet Mr. Lal is totally unaware of the new-age, look-at-me party India has thrown for its chattering classes; unaware that he and the other 900 million Indians who have not been invited, now risk being airbrushed from just about every picture that counts.

Don’t get me wrong. India deserves its party. Its ingenuity, hard-work and brilliance in many fields provide plenty to celebrate. But increasing numbers of the non-invitees are no longer content to press their noses against the windows of the wealthy, beg at the traffic lights and hawk their new-born children around the tourist sites, hoping to prick a few foreign consciences.

The harsh fact is that a third of the country’s districts are now fighting insurgencies, and unless more of India’s citizens get a sense of belonging to their “shining,” “incredible” country — as the PR disciples would have it — there are fears that the violence may increase substantially.

A former government minister, Mani Shankar Ayar, puts it this way: “We have a tiny elite that is obsessed with itself. If democracy doesn’t deliver for the rest — we could be heading for violence. We’re seeing a failure to bring 900 million people inside the system of entitlements. Without entitlements, you pick up the gun.”

Pick up instead the New Delhi newspapers and you’re whisked well away from any notion of a developing country and straight into cash-land India. Wherever you turn there’s a blaze of high-end promotions, designed to suck in the gigantic wealth now generated by the world’s most populous and powerful middle class. Let no one forget that India is home to the fourth largest number of billionaires and to 60 million people with a higher living standard than France or Britain — and commerce across the globe is chasing their money.

The statistics of modern India are breathtaking and point to an unprecedented event — the birth of an economic giant from within the poorest country on the planet. And that is why a thousand times a day every rule is defied and, every belief undermined. Just when you think you have discovered a basic truth, it laughs at you, runs away into the crowd and disappears for good.

A former journalist recently attended the wedding of an old friend’s son. He was struck that the boy was marrying someone from a lower caste. When he mentioned it to his friend, the man denied it but the old reporter persisted. “I know it may be difficult for you,” he said, “but the lady is from a different caste. That’s a fact.”

“You don’t understand,” his friend told him with a shrug. “He works for Chase Manhattan, she works for Chase Manhattan. Same caste.”

One government official tells me that the only way two Indians know they are from the same country is because they speak a different language, worship a different God, read different books and like different music. “On the face of it they have nothing in common. So they must be Indian.”

In Western societies we have little experience of the enormous contrasts that beset India. Drive a few minutes from the Members’ Enclosure at Mumbai racecourse to some of the filthiest slums in the world and the Westerner will wonder if he has just left one country and entered another. He seeks order out of the chaos, explanations, synergies. The Indian will just accept.

Years ago, when I wrote novels, my editor told me “the difference between real life and fiction is that fiction has to make sense. Real life seldom does.”

It’s a thought that has often come to my mind in India.

I drive north to a campus of Delhi University. By the time I arrive I have a boxful of discordant pictures and sounds. A beggar holding a dollar bill, asking for change, a cow, a McDonald’s, wild monkeys swinging from buildings, birds screeching from the trees, students in designer T-shirts. Species all mixed up and thrown together. And in this buzzy, hectic pantomime there’s a feeling that almost anything is possible.

I ask Madan Lal if his son will take his place on the pavement when he decides to retire. He looks up at me and smiles. “My son? No, no,” he replies. “My son is going to school.”

Tim Sebastian is a television journalist and chairman of the Doha Debates.

Posted in Dalit Issues, General | Tagged: Dalit, Dalit Issue, General, india | Leave a Comment »

Cow slaughter bill runs into opposition in K’taka

Posted by samathain on March 16, 2010

( Samatha )

Our thoughts are about how this bill could be within the basic principles of constitution ? Food habits is subjective and personal. Government passing draconian laws on this invites state tyranny, because now the state can make arrests based on false claims of cow slaughter or beef eating. This is a blow for CIVIL LIBERTIES. In Bangalore, last march (2009), a law was passed to require LICENSE from the commissioner to organize any kind of PROTEST. That was draconian and against democratic principles as we are stifling the voice of dissent. If the protesters were influential enough to get LICENSE, what would they be protesting against ? Vast majority of the people don’t have that kind of influence. This was done in the name of TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT !!!!! Here, in the name of hurting sentiments of majority community, we are passing a law which will support the worst form of state tyranny.

Why these seers are not hurt by the presence of american executives in MNCs ? They regularly eat beef as staple food. We wonder if the majority community would be offended by their eating habits. Well, no, actually. We are over eager to send our kids to work in MNCs. We want our kids to pursue higher education and career in america. Why are we not hurt in these cases ? We simply choose to support diversity, as beef eating is just a food habit of americans. Why we can not apply the same sense when it comes to indians eating beef. Is it because they are really second class citizens ? No, it is just a tool to selectively terrorize common man through state apparatus. Of course, MNC executives visiting from america need to be doubly careful. Anytime, if the state wants, it can pull them up using this piece of legislation.

Beef is a cheap source of proteins. Proteins are very important for the growth of muscles. No wonder, India is lagging behind in sports. Middle class, which has the time to pursue sports, has poor nutrition due to restrictions on food habits. Aryans could not have succeeded in conquering India without the help of beef. Vedas describe Indra as fond of feasting on beef. In fact, beef eating was looked down upon only as a reaction to counter the growth of Buddhism and Jainism. It (Ban on beef eating) was not even part of vedic tradition !!!

Good old adage of “Live and let live” is very appropriate here. As long as we respect different tastes and different preferences of people, these are truly non-issues. Why should we adopt “one size fits all” principle ? We don’t do this in any other part of our lives. Trying to force one way of life on everyone is simply out of tune with modern world. India is in a position to become highly influential in the world stage. Can we really do this by adopting these retrograde policies ? Taste in food is highly subjective. State trying to regulate such a basic right is simply INTRUSIVE, not enforceable and is useful only as a tool of oppression. For instance, I have no problem with eating beef. But the nature of my up-bringing is such that I don’t feel comfortable about eating it. Its a mental block that can be overcome with some effort. However, I don’t really want to do that. Reason is, my lifestyle is already sedentary. I can’t really handle the disproportionate amount of fat in red meat. So, I have no motivation to overcome this mental block. However, I don’t see any reason why I should be uncomfortable if a family member, neighbor, colleague, a visitor or anybody else fancying beef for their own personal reasons. Neither did any of our great Hindu kings. Why should anyone be supporting such a policy in this modern age ? It does not make any sense at all

Bangalore has become symbol of progress. These bills are out of tune with its image. Don’t SACRIFICE CIVIL LIBERTIES. Our freedom was not won cheaply.

Source: Sakaal Times

Cow slaughter bill runs into opposition in K’taka
Habib Beary
Friday, March 12, 2010 AT 07:32 PM (IST)
Tags: Karnataka-Politics

BENGALURU: Hindu seers have asked the Karnataka Government to
immediately pass a law to ban cow slaughter even as the Congress,
Janata Dal Secular and left parties opposed the bill, saying it was
draconian and targeted minorities.

Dalit organisations too have protested against the ban, saying the
government cannot interfere in food habits of people.

In the light of protests by Dalits and the opposition parties, several
seers led by Vishwesha Theertha of the Udupi Pejawar mutt called upon
political parties not to politicise the issue.

“Parties across various political affiliations will have to come
together to protect these animals by supporting the ban, he said,
after addressing a meet of pontiffs of various mutts organised by
newly formed Cow Progeny Protection Force.

Adichunchangiri Mutt seer Balagangadharanath said it was wrong to kill
and eat the meat of the animals worshiped by the major community.

But Opposition leader in the assembly Siddaramaiah said the bill was
being pushed through at the behest of the RSS..

“It is the hidden agenda of the government. It will divide people on
communal lines,” he alleged.

Congress MLA Roshan Baig said the bill should be withdrawn as it was
aimed at targeting minorities

.”There is a wrong notion that only Muslims and Christians oppose the
anti-cow slaughter bill, but the BJP government should know that there
are a lot of members from the lower castes including Dalits who have
been eating cow meat for many centuries”, said former legislator and
human rights activist A.K.Subbaiah.

The bill ‘Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of
Cattle Bill 2010 that has been introduced in the assembly proposes
stringent punishment for violation including considering all offences
under the Act as “congnisable and non-bailable”

Law Minister Suresh Kumar said if the opposition members had any
reservations over the bill they could discuss the issue when the bill
comes up for discussion.

The legislation to ban cow slaughter was intended to divide people
and to create violence in the name of communities which eat beef and
others. The law is not due to any love for cows or because the animal
is considered holy”, said CPM leader G N Nagaraj.

Posted in Caste Discrimination, Caste Issues, Current Affairs, Dalit Issues, General, Minority Issues | Tagged: Dalit, Dalit Issues, General, Minority Issues | Leave a Comment »

Caste Discrimination in Karnataka flood relief operations

Posted by samathain on November 9, 2009

Samatha

It is the poor and the landless who deserve most help during these natural calamities. However, even simple gruel is not being served to the poor in the name of them not having Id cards of local areas !!! We don’t think anybody should be turned away from gruel centers. Distributing relief from religious centers like matts and temples is highly discriminatory. Aren’t there government schools and government offices ? Even in relief work, one should not discriminate based on caste and religion. Government is not going to have funds to rebuild houses for every one. That is understandable. As the floods affected everyone, rich and poor alike, irrespective of caste or religion. Instead of allowing for usual corruption and influence in implementing welfare schemes, government should give a fair chance to everyone who fulfills the eligibility criteria. Government should really consider building houses for the affected using open and honest lottery. US does the same with respect to much coveted Green Cards by having lottery system to give a chance to people to immigrate irrespective of skills or income.

Red Cross leading NGOs to arrange relief for flood affected people in north karnataka. U can reach 4 details @ +91-80-22264205

Source: The Hindu

Caste discrimination in rehabilitation work alleged

Special Correspondent

‘Help from private agencies should be channelled through Government’

Bangalore: On what basis did some families in the flood-hit districts of north Karnataka get a compensation of Rs. 1,500 for a destroyed house, while others got up to Rs. 30,000 even when the nature of construction and extent of built area was equal?
Discrepancies

Caste discrimination was at the root of many such discrepancies in rehabilitation work in Bijpur, Bellary, Gulbarga and other districts, alleged persons from these areas in their testimonies at a public hearing organised by Human Rights Forum for Dalit Liberation (HRFDL) here on Saturday.

They listed discriminations of various kinds: in compensation given for destroyed houses and crops, restricted access to gruel centres, barring entry into rehabilitation centres when they are in religious places such as temples, and so on. “They give money to those who have got it once, leaving out poor people like me,” said Durgamma from Hospet taluk in Bellary district.

Kamala Bai from Karjol in Bijapur district said the Dalits and the poor got a raw deal even though the former Minister Govind Karjol hailed from her village.

P. Ramesh from Bijapur alleged that the district administration had used the floods as an excuse to demolish two slums.

“Rather than help rebuild our houses, whatever remained our houses was destroyed without any notice,” he said.

Basavaraj Kowthal, convenor of HRFDL, objected to the rehabilitation work being done through maths and other religious organisations as it led to caste discrimination. He demanded that help for rehabilitation from private agencies be channelled through the Government. Justice A.J. Sadashiva, who heads the panel set up to probe discrimination against the Scheduled Castes, said that problems in rehabilitation should be corrected rather than stopped.
Barriers

He said that caste barriers should be done away with while rebuilding villages and people from various castes should not be segregated in allotment of houses and sites.

Gruel centres fail to satiate the hungry

Source : The Hindu

Sudipto Mondal

Pregnant women and children worst-affected

Gruel centre at Mandrali abruptly was closed down on Friday

Migrant workers have not received any relief or food from the authorities

Fllod victims waiting at gruel center
— Photo: Sudipto Mondal

A long wait: Flood victims in Mandrali village of Kadvad gram panchayat wait for a team from a local NGO to bring them food after the gruel centre was closed by the district administration.

KARWAR: After providing exactly seven lunches and seven dinners, the district administration has concluded that Mandrali village’s flood-affected residents have had enough “free food” and must fend for themselves from now on. (Breakfast is not part of the deal at relief centers in Uttara Kannada district.)

Fourteen insipid and low-calorie meals are all that the 150 flood victims here managed to get before the gruel centre here was abruptly closed down on Friday — seven days after it was started. Official sources told The Hindu that of the remaining 17 centers in the district, many more will be closed in the next two days.

When The Hindu reached Mandrali at 2.30 p.m. on Friday, its famished residents barely had energy to talk and were eagerly waiting for the Karwar Diocesan Development Council, a local NGO, to bring them food.

“We have not eaten anything since last night. The gruel centre was our only source of sustenance,” said Renuka B. Kathimare amid the cries of her three hungry children.

But even as the residents here lamented the loss of their gruel centre, they unanimously agreed that the food, when supplied, was barely edible.

Two meals a day comprising of a watery dal and lumpy rice is what is served. The gruel centre in the Kothar area of Majali Gram Panchayat, which supports 380 people, received 12 kg of dal on October 4 and 5 and only 10 kg the next day. But since October 7, the centre has been receiving only eight kg or 21.05 gm of dal per person.

The only vegetables, for the record, are tomatoes and onions — four kilos of each go into the cooking of a mass meal. Each person gets 10.5 gm of onions and the same quantity of tomatoes in each meal.

The first meal at the centers is served at 1.30 p.m. every day. “By this time, we have a storm in our stomachs and are giddy with hunger,” said Ullas P. Kotarkar a resident whose house was washed away in the floods.

“Only two of my younger children (aged one and four) get a glass of diluted milk in the morning. The other two (aged six and nine) do not get anything,” said Meenakshi Vivek Talekar (30).

This is because, as per the rules, only children below five years of age are eligible for milk. Migrant colonies, with their flimsy houses, bore the full brunt of the disaster. But as the workers, mostly from districts in north Karnataka, do not hold domicile documents, they have not received any relief or food.

Venkatesh Bovi (38), a construction worker hailing from Gadag, said that he tried to sneak into a gruel centre with his family of six a few days ago. But he was chased away by the officials there since he did not have any identification papers,” he claimed.

Deputy Commissioner N.S. Chennappagowda maintains that the district had no shortage of funds.

“But where are these funds going?” asked Ramesh N. Gowda of the Taluk Vokkaligara Sangha.

Waiting to encash their cheques

Source : The Hindu

Girish Pattanashetti

Compensation cheques for house collapse yet to be realised

Parasappa Madar in front of their make-shift tent

On their own: Parasappa Madar and his family in front of their make-shift shelter near Shirabadagi village in Bagalkot district.

SHIRABADAGI (BAGALKOT DISTRICT): The steel frames which Parasappa Madar used for sericulture a few years ago has become handy for him now. In the absence of temporary sheds for shelter, the steel frames, torn plastic sheets and a blanket now form the roof of the temporary shelter he has built for his family.

Parasappa has been living with his wife Matangi and three children in this shelter for almost a month now. To add to his woes, he has been suffering from stomach pain for the last few weeks. Although the doctors have given him medicines, the pain remains.

Moreover, the compensation cheque of Rs. 37,000 given to him for house damage is yet to be credited into his bank account.

Scores of residents of Shirabadagi village in Badami taluk of Bagalkot district have similar problems. At present, there are 96 sheds near the Shirabadagi village, which were set up after several houses collapsed during the flooding of the Malaprabha in 2007. Several people living in the sheds generously shared their temporary houses with other recent flood-hit families. Yet, there are still many who require shelter. Even after a month, the temporary sheds are still in the process of being “set up”.

However, the residents seem to be satisfied with the foodgrains, essential commodities and healthcare that have been provided.

But they wonder why despite having bank accounts, the compensation cheques could not be encashed.

Out of a drought and into the flood

Source: The Hindu

Sudipto Mondal

Migrant workers from North Karnataka have been dealt another cruel blow

Migrant workers are not eligible for compensation

They are not getting jobs as works have stopped

— Photo: sudipto mondal

Left in the lurch: Migrant labourers from north Karnataka wait for work in front of the Karwar Urban Bank.

KARWAR: It is 6.30 a.m. on Friday and a large group of men and women gather in front of the Karwar Urban Bank. Their trademark saris and jewellery, dhotis and turbans say that they are from north Karnataka. “We are waiting here in the hope that some contractor will give us work,” explains Girijowwa (38) from Gajendragada in Gadag. She says that group has spent the last seven days waiting for jobs.

“There is no work. All construction work has stopped. Come tomorrow,” Prashant Bovi a middle-aged contractor tells the crowd milling around him. The disappointed workers silently scatter.

A natural calamity is no great leveller. Take the impoverished workforce of migrant labour from north Karnataka, for example. The drought in their home villages drove them to Karwar in search of work. Here, they fell victim to the fury of the monsoon and the floods that devastated the coastal region.

According to Yamunappa Kotudi (48), who owns an eight acre farm in Bagalkot: “My entire crop of jowar withered in the drought.” In early September, he and his family of five members migrated to Habbuwada on the outskirts of Karwar, with only a bag of jowar and rice.

Outside his partially destroyed hut, his wife is drying some sodden jowar in the sun, helped by their three scantily clad children aged 10, 9 and six.

There are several small clusters of thatched huts spread across the area, flimsily constructed on empty plots and along drains. Those along a large storm water drain were the worst affected by the floods.
No food, no relief

Migrant workers dealt a raw deal

Yamunapur Benkathi, a migrant worker from Bagalkot, says that some officials came to the colony in a jeep a few days ago.

“They asked me if I had a ration card or titles to the land on which this hut is built and I said I did not.” No official has since visited, he says.

Later, when asked about compensation for migrant labourers, Deputy Commissioner N.S. Chennappagowda told The Hindu: “They will be compensated, but they must have some identification papers to show they are from this district.”

The migrant labourers of Habbuwada, who are amongst the worst affected by the flood, are thus outside the compensation net.

Says Venkatesh Bovi (50): “Nobody has bothered to come and even ask us if we are dead or alive.”

Mr. Bovi and the other residents say that they had nothing to eat for several days after the floods. One migrant worker, too ashamed to identify himself, says that after two days of starvation he was forced to beg for food. He says that he owns 10 acres of land in Gulbarga.

“So what if we are not eligible for compensation? The officials could have at least provided us with food,” says Shivaji (35), from Bijapur. In fact when Venkatesh Bovi and his family tried to sneak into a gruel centre, they were chased away by an official. “We were asked for our ration cards. When we told him (the official) that all documents were washed away in the floods, he chased us away,” says Mr. Bovi.

Residents of villages may not benefit from compensation

Source : The Hindu

T.V. Sivanandan

Most houses in villages in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region are ‘kuchcha’ houses

Bhimashankar kallur and his family still live in their damaged kutchcha house

Sorry state: Bhimashankar Kallur and his family inside his damaged house in Yatnal village of Gulbarga district.

GULBARGA: Residents of villages, whose houses have been damaged, completely or partially, may not benefit from the compensation given by the Government.

According to Assistant Commissioner Sangappa, under the norms of the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF), officials are authorised to pay a maximum compensation of Rs. 10,000 to families whose “kuchcha” house have been completely damaged in the floods, Rs. 1,500 to those whose houses have partially collapsed and Rs. 2,500 to those whose houses have been severely damaged. However, for “pucca” houses, which have been completely damaged, Rs. 35,000 will be paid as compensation.

Houses constructed using mud and boulders without concrete roofing are classified as “kuchcha” houses and houses constructed using cement with cement concrete roofing are classified as “pucca” houses.

Almost all the houses in villages in the Hyderabad Karnataka region are constructed with mud and boulders.

People of the villages in this region use the mud from tank beds and boulders to construct their houses. The roof is also constructed with the same mud and bamboo sticks or stalks of red gram. Bhimashankar Kallur, a resident of Yatnal village in Jewargi taluk, whose house was severely damaged, said: “With this paltry compensation I will have to borrow money from money-lenders at a high rate of interest to reconstruct my house.”

At the most Mr. Kallur will be paid Rs. 2,500 as compensation for the three rooms of the four rooms which have collapsed.

Basanna Mariappa of Bandoli village, whose house located on the banks of the Krishna, is severely damaged said: “I cannot imagine living in the house in its present condition. Even if the Government pays Rs. 10,000 as compensation it will not be enough to reconstruct the house.” However, a sum of Rs. 2,000 which was paid to affected families as immediate compensation enabled them to purchase essential items such as food, utensils and clothes.

B.S. Patil, vice-president of the Afzalpur Taluk Panchayat and a resident of Tellur village, which was marooned owing to floods in the Amarja, said that the amount would go a long way in helping the people meet emergency needs. In Gulbarga district, as per the official estimate, more than 30,400 houses have collapsed, partially or fully, in the floods and heavy rain.

Posted in Caste Issues, Current Affairs, General, Human Rights, Recent News | Tagged: Caste, Dalit, Floods, Karnataka | 1 Comment »

Caste and inequalities in health

Posted by samathain on August 30, 2009

Source: The Hindu

K.S. Jacob

Caste is a major indicator of health outcomes and mandates the need for interventions that change social structures.

The caste system, with its societal stratification and social restrictions, continues to have a major impact on the country. The system, generally identified with Hinduism, is also prevalent among Christians, Sikhs and Muslims. While some barriers are broken in urban settings, many continue to persist in rural India. While the secular, socialistic and democratic principles enshrined in the Constitution demand equality of outcomes, the inherent caste-related inequality cont inues to dominate reality in Indian society. Much of the debate has focussed on reservation in educational institutions and employment, and rarely highlights the inequalities in health.

Social constructs: Many studies have documented that the caste system is a social construct in the absence of any real genetic differences among castes. Caste, in many ways, is similar to race, which is also a social concept without genetic basis. Nevertheless, these social constructs seem to have a stranglehold on human thought, perpetuating prejudice and propagating unjust societal structures.

Health indicators: Data from the National Family Health Survey-III (2005-06) clearly highlight the caste differentials in relation to health status. The survey documents low levels of contraceptive use among the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes compared to forward castes. Reduced access to maternal and child health care is evident with reduced levels of antenatal care, institutional deliveries and complete vaccination coverage among the lower castes. Stunting, wasting, underweight and anaemia in children and anaemia in adults are higher among the lower castes. Similarly, neonatal, postnatal, infant, child and under-five statistics clearly show a higher mortality among the SCs and the STs. Problems in accessing health care were higher among the lower castes. The National Family Health Survey-II (1998-99) documented a similar picture of lower accessibility and poorer health statistics among the lower castes.

The poor, a majority from the lower castes, migrate to different parts of the country in search of work. Their migrant status means they lose many benefits generally offered to the poorer sections as their below poverty line and ration cards are not valid across State borders. The migrants find it difficult to register with the National Tuberculosis Programme at their place of work, resulting in out-of-pocket expenditure for treatment, discontinuation of medication when symptoms improve, relapse of the disease, medication resistance and premature death. Illness and its treatment usually wipe out all savings and are a common reason for indebtedness. Migrants are often considered vectors of communicable diseases and are not engaged by the public health system as they drive down indicators of health. The complete absence of schooling for their children implies a continuation of the cycle of poverty. Their inability to register with local electoral bodies means they fall off the radar of politicians and political parties.

Victims of communal violence: Dalits continue to face social discrimination and exclusion and are targets of communal violence. Assault, rape and murder of Dalits by the ‘upper’ castes are common and yet, frequently these crimes are not investigated and punished by the authorities, despite laws and protection provided by the Indian state. The Khairlanji massacre and the delay in its investigation come to mind. While many legal statutes exist, their implementation leaves much to be desired.

Health and human rights: There is an inextricable link between health and human rights. The violations of human rights (for example, violence) can have serious health consequences. The vulnerability to ill-health is reduced by taking steps to protect such rights (for example, freedom from discrimination and rights to health, education and housing). The World Health Organisation has strongly argued for a human rights-based approach to health to overcome the persistence of discrimination and human rights abuses.

Social determinants of health: It is widely recognised that the determinants of health are social and economic rather than purely medical. The poor health of people from the lower castes, their social exclusion and the steep social gradient are due to the unequal distribution of power, income, goods and services. Caste is inextricably linked to and is a proxy for socio-economic status in India. The restricted access of those from the lower castes to clean water, sanitation, nutrition, housing, education, health care and employment is due to a toxic combination of poor social policies and programmes, unfair economic arrangement and bad politics.

The structural determinants of daily life contribute to the social determinants of health and fuel the inequities in health between caste groups. Viewing health in general as an individual or medical issue, reducing population health to a biomedical perspective and suggesting individual medical interventions reflect a poor understanding of issues. Social interventions should form the core of all health and prevention programmes as individual medical interventions have little impact on population indices, which require population interventions.

Barriers to scaling up intervention: The major barrier to mainstreaming health care and to scaling up effective interventions is caste inequality based on socio-cultural issues. The systematic discrimination of lower castes based on culture, tradition and religion needs to be tackled if interventions have to work. Although the short time-lag between the (absence of) medical intervention and the health outcomes stands out as causal, it is the longer latent period and the hazier but ubiquitous and dominant relationship between caste and culture which have major impacts on outcome. Failure to recognise this relationship and the refusal to tackle these issues result in poorer health standards of the SCs and the STs. Tradition and culture maintain their stranglehold on inequality. Poverty and social exclusion have a multiplicative effect on the social determinants of health with those at higher risk for diseases also having a higher probability of being excluded from health care services.

The way forward: The World Health Organisation and its Commission on Social Determinants of Health recommend three principles for action: improving the conditions of daily life; tackling the iniquitous distribution of power, money and resources; and raising public awareness of issues, measuring the problems and evaluating actions. Providing supplemental nutrition and psychosocial stimulation improves physical and mental growth in underprivileged and stunted children. The provision of primary and secondary education and accessible health care regardless of the ability to pay is cardinal to success. Managing urban development with the provision of affordable housing, clean water and sanitation in addition to addressing rural land tenure and livelihoods is mandatory. The provision of fair and continuous employment and a universal public distribution system are necessary. The establishment and strengthening of universal social protection schemes are called for.

Continuing the current affirmative action in education and employment is crucial. Strengthening the mid-day meal scheme, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Right to Education Act, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Food Security Act and the National Rural Health Mission, all steps in the right direction, is essential. There is need to increase resource allocation for the social determinants of health and to reinforce the government’s primary responsibility in providing for basic needs. Gender equity and social and political inclusion of the poor and lower castes in policy and decision making are required. Critics argue that an exclusive focus on production and trade without a viable distributive policy on food and land will not make poverty history.

The limits of liberalism: The spirit of socialism enshrined in the Constitution per se has not and will not result in equality of social and health outcomes for all people. There is need to change social structures. The many small moments of justice cannot overcome the large contradictions in Indian society. Liberals, by definition, can identify the issues but do not actively seek fundamental shifts in political power or enthusiastically champion changes in social mores. They are also part of the tyrannical social order.

Caste plays out in India just as race plays out in the U.S. and the social class in Britain. Birth seems to determine health, education, employment, social and economic outcomes. Systemic injustice requires much more than a change of heart; it requires changes in social structures. Social injustice is killing people and mandates the ethical imperative of improving the social determinants of health.

(Professor K.S. Jacob is on the faculty of the Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.)

Posted in Caste Issues, Dalit Issues, General | Tagged: Caste Issues, Dalit, Dalit Issues | 1 Comment »

A Taliban Of Our Very Own

Posted by samathain on August 11, 2009

(Samatha)

Power of these lawless panchayats is really scare. Khap Panchayats control 25,000 villages !!! That’s a state within the state. How could we allow such parallel governments ? Its sickening to read their brutal punishments. When elected representatives depend on these Khap panchayats, its not surprising. Why shouldn’t the government at the center intervene ? Can’t they investigate ? Can’t supreme court do something ? No intelligent person would like to stay back there. Given the first opportunity, one would run to greener pastures, pushing these areas even more backward. Same is applicable to the landless laborers too. Powerless, socially and economical, they would prefer a life in slums of bombay rather than live in terror. This would only further break the spirits of these farm dependent jats. Assets of those on the Khap panchayat committee should be thoroughly investigated. Financial motivations behind their brutal judgements could be understood to some extent.

Heroes can not fight these private empires. Only the intervention of larger society can save these people. After the mumbai terror attack, central government is seriously considering a federal anti-terror agency. This agency should also include terror unleashed by these private armies too. These pachayats are no different from tribal councils of pakistan’s badlands. Its wrong to assume that opinions of few (self-elected, self serving, brutal, greedy) khap committee members reflects that of the majority of the people. It seems like democracy has failed here if the khap committee decides who is going to win.

Just as punjab’s militants were busy leading lavish life in delhi, this Khap panchayat is using tradition to make profits among their small circle.

Source : Tehelka

Murder, rape and exile are routine punishments for these parallel ‘Parliaments’. NEHA DIXIT tracks Khap panchayats across north India. Photos by TARUN SEHRAWAT

JUST A few kilometres outside our capital, there exists a body that brazenly rejects our Constitution and our laws. It orders the assassination of couples who marry for love and snatches and sells the children of those who defy its rules. It has ordered the punitive gangrape and murder of mothers whose sons have eloped with another’s daughter. This body has even gone so far as to order that women should only give birth to sons. In yet another paradox in this land of paradoxes, our Prime Minister goes to the G8 Summit to lend his support towards fighting the Taliban, even as we refuse to acknowledge a Taliban huddling not in some foreign mountain redoubt but reigning rampant over millions of Indians – just a short bus ride away from the halls of Parliament.

If you dare take the Khap’s matters to the police, you might as well ask them to protect your life’

Surat Singh

All those who will marry within the same gotra will be killed. We can’t allow them to pollute the biradari’

Jila Singh

We don’t believe in any Supreme Court. What the Khap says is final. No court can change it’

Babbu Singh

Murdering an erring child is a rare opportunity to show your loyalty to the biradari and the Khap’

Lal Ram

Well of autocracy Members of the Banawala Khap in Singhwala village, Karnal district, Haryana

On July 23, the day our prime minister assured the G8 that India would fully cooperate towards ending oppression by the Taliban, a man was lynched on the orders of the Sarv Khap Panchayat in Haryana’s Jind district because his bride was from the same gotra, a lineage assigned to a Hindu at birth. Some Hindus believe it is incestuous to marry within the gotra. According to various NGO and media reports, Khap panchayats have ordered the execution of at least four people every week for the last six months for marrying within the gotra. Doctrinally orthodox, yet radical in their rejection of the law, the Sarv Khap Panchayat is a cluster of several caste-based panchayats. Translated, it means the supreme Panchayat; and it behaves like a Parliament unto itself.

Khap panchayats have existed since 600 AD in India and have managed their affairs independent of the law of the land. Historically, they have had standing armies protecting the individual Khaps. A Khap is a unit of territory – traditionally, 84 villages from the same caste. The Sarv Khap Panchayat has 300 subordinate Khaps, controlling roughly 25,000 villages in Haryana, Punjab, Western Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Over the last five years, the Khap Panchayats have emerged as an extra-Constitutional body that has repeatedly issued extremely disturbing diktats. Khap Panchayats have been known to order killings, rapes, human trafficking, the seizure of the assets of their victims and arbitrary bans and restrictions based only on their whims and fancies. All this is done in the guise of maintaining the honour and pride of their community. In many cases, the local administration is all too ready to bow before the will of the Khap.

SENTENCED TO DEATH
Misha holds the High Court order in one hand and grabs this reporter’s hand with the other. “What have you come here for?” she cries. “You all are impotent. You can’t change them. They will kill you too. We have to live and die by their rules,” she says. Her 26-year-old son Ved Pal, an ayurvedic practitioner, married and eloped with Sonia, 22, in March this year against the wishes of their parents. When the Banawala Khap, under whose ‘jurisdiction’ Singhwala, Sonia’s village is in heard about the marriage, they issued a decree stating that since the couple belonged to the same gotra, they were siblings and their marriage unholy. For the crime of “incest” and for dishonouring the community, the decree ordered that both be hunted down and killed.

NGO reports say Khap panchayats order the execution of at least four people every week

The newlyweds were tracked down and separated on May 22, not even two months after the decree was passed. Ved Pal could not bear the injustice and put his hopes in the laws that are supposed to govern this land. He approached the Haryana High Court and got a Court order for police protection. At 9pm on July 23, Balwant Singh, the SHO of Narwana Sadar, and Suraj Bhan, a warrant officer of the High Court arrived along with a police party at Ved Pal’s residence in Mataur village in Jind, Haryana. They promised to escort Ved Pal to Singhwala, where his wife Sonia was forcibly confined in her parents’ house, in order to get her back. As soon as he reached Singhwala, Ved Pal was attacked. He was dragged to the terrace in Sonia’s house and stripped. His face and torso were beaten with sticks and his neck and shoulders were cut open with sickles and scythes. Suraj Bhan was pushed from the terrace, while, astonishingly, the 15 policemen fled. “Not a single bone in my son’s body was left intact. They kept beating him long after he was dead,” says his mother. His family, which lives in Matour village, 5km from Singhwal, came to know 14 hours later. They were not even given a copy of the post mortem report. While Balwant Singh has been suspended, four villagers have been arrested. Since then, Sonia has gone missing. Her friend, who refused to be named, told TEHELKA that Sonia was badly beaten with bricks by her family. Sonia’s uncle, Surat Singh says, “She has been remarried and is happy in her household.” Her friend says that this had been done just to dissuade queries about Sonia and fears for her life in the near future.

“What else can be done with such children?” asks Kamal. Her husband Om Prakash and nine others from Balla village in Karnal district, Haryana, have been in jail for the last year. On May 9, 2008, Om Prakash along with others allegedly tied the hands and legs of her 23-year-old pregnant daughter Sunita and her husband Jasbir to a tree and ran them over with a tractor. Their bodies were hung outside Sunita’s house to warn youngsters who might be considering something similar. Both were from the same gotra. Says Jagat Singh, a member of the Kaliraman Khap, which ordered their killing, “We believe that all those who marry within the gotra are bastards. To save the biradari (community), one has to kill the dissenters.” Villagers hail the murders as a victory of good over evil. “The parents of such children should quietly murder them. Not many get such an opportunity to show their true commitment to the biradari,” says Jai Singh, another member of the Kaliraman Khap.

Couples from the same gotra are siblings. For the crime of incest and for dishonouring the community, they should be killed’

Banawala Khap, March 12, 2009, on killing Sonia and Ved Pal in Karnal

Oppressed Ved Pal’s family members grieve his death in Mataur village in Karnal district, Haryana

‘What have you come here for? You all are impotent. You can’t change them. They will kill you too. We have to live and die by their rules’
Misha, mother of Ved Pal, who was killed on July 23, 2009

The absence of law enforcement in this situation is stark. A barbaric system that glorifies murder and lynching in the name of honour is rampant, victorious. The constitution, the law, the administration are all slumped in defeat. No wonder then, that Jasbir’s sister, a witness in the case against the alleged murderers, suddenly turned hostile. An insider who did not want to be named told TEHELKA, “The Khap told Jasbir’s family that if they did not withdraw the case, they would be boycotted by the community and would be expelled from their village.” The accused will soon be set free, further reinforcing a barbarity that has wide social sanction locally. Ajit Singh, an ‘activist’ of the Banawala Khap, says, “The Khap has framed ways of life for the community. Love marriages are not permitted. Our elders have enforced this rule. We will do the same.”

In conversations with villagers over weeks and months, it became clear that murders decreed by Khap panchayats were common. However, in most cases, a twisted notion of tradition and the fear of social boycott ensure the murders are never reported to the police or the media. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) doesn’t classify or record honour killings and hence has no statistics on them. The lack of figures on murders ordered by Khap panchayats or ‘honour killings’ hinders research and legislation that might address the issue.

A major reason behind non-availability of statistics is ‘bhaichara’ (brotherhood), which is practised by the villagers under Khap panchayats. To safeguard the honour of the Khap and the village, Khap decrees and executions are deep secrets. Few FIRs are ever lodged.

A GENDER STUBBED OUT
Misogynists often have a way of manipulating the actions of women to their own advantage by hiding their motives behind logic. Patriarchal and regressive, Khaps have played a key role in reducing Haryana’s sex ratio to an abysmal low. Already the state with the lowest sex ratio, and infamous for its bride markets, Khaps in Haryana still proclaim the primacy of male heirs. In 2004, the Tevatia Khap was ‘hearing’ a property dispute in Duleypur. The Khap decreed that families with less than two sons were not eligible to approach the Khap for property disputes as those ‘unfortunate’ families had ‘lesser scope’ towards carrying forward the father’s name or increasing family assets. They simply deserved less, the Khap said.

After a pro-male Khap diktat, the sex ratio in Ballabhgarh fell from 683 in 2004 to 370 in 2008

This has had a devastating effect. Families, desperate for the ‘required’ two sons are using every trick in the book to avoid female births (or kill baby girls). According to a report by the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the sex ratio in 28 villages in Ballabhgarh block — an area ‘governed’ by the Tevatia Khap in Faridabad — has nosedived. The report shows a direct relation between sexdetermination tests and the abortion of female foetuses. Shockingly, because of the failure of the state to notify the Pre- Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, which bans sex-determination tests nationwide, courts were forced to acquit the few doctors arrested for conducting sexdetermination tests in Haryana.

Those who have married against the rules of the Khap must pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh and leave the village along with their families forever’

Kadyan Khap, July 21, 2009, on expelling Ravindra and his family in Jhajjar

Cruel exile Ravindra’s grandaunt Kamal (left) along with other family members in Dharana village, Jhajjar district, Haryana

‘I worked day and night on our farms. I have reared cattle all my life. That is how we expanded our fields. Where on earth will I go now?’

Birna, Ravindra’s grandmother, on being exiled from the village

Dr Anand K, in-charge of AIIMS’ Rural Health Services Centre in Ballabhgarh since September 2006 says, “The report clearly reveals that fewer females are born as second or third children in families that are yet to have a boy. This can be solved only by social intervention.”

The 2004 statement by the Tevatia Khap offers a revealing explanation for the shockingly adverse sex ratio. Says Kanta Singh, member of the Tevatia Khap and father of a daughter older than his three sons, “Sons are a man’s assets. My sons will take my name forward and expand my farms. They will earn money to pay for this girl’s dowry and marriage.”When asked where his sons will find brides, considering the scarcity of girls, he answers arrogantly, “They will earn enough not to have to worry about that.” This could be a veiled reference to the fact that Haryana has one of the country’s largest ‘bride markets’, where trafficked girls are sold and end up as baby-producing machines.

The Khap’s misogyny is not limited to female infanticide. They rely on an age-old tactic: rape as punishment for a whole family. In 2004, in Bhawanipur village in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, 20-year-old Chetan eloped with Pinky, the daughter of an influential Yadav family. The boy belonged to the barber caste. The Tevatia Khap ordered that while the couple should be traced, Sia Dulari, Chetan’s mother, should be raped turn-after-turn by the members of the Yadav family, since her son had dishonoured the Yadavs. “Not only did they gang rape her, they burnt her alive to destroy any evidence. The police knew about it but did nothing,” says Raj Narayan, Chetan’s uncle. Only after activists intervened were some arrests made – but everyone was later released on bail.

NO DANCE, NO CRICKET
Following the precedent of Afghanistan’s Taliban, in March 2007, the Ruhal Khap banned DJs from playing in marriage parties in Rohtak, citing the ‘disturbance to milch animals’ as the reason. The real reason for the prohibition was the determination to stop girls from entering dance floors. Soon, three other Khaps joined in, spreading the ban to at least 83 villages around Rohtak. Says Pankaj Ruhal, an activist of Ruhal Khap, “Youngsters drink and dance to loud music. Cows can’t sleep in the night and it becomes difficult to milk them in the morning. Women who used to stay indoors started dancing publicly. This is against our tradition.”

Similarly, in May 2001, the Taliban stated that cricket should be banned in Muslim countries. Six years later, in April 2007, Tewa Singh, head of the Daadan Khap banned cricket and watching cricket matches on television in 28 villages in Jind district as ‘young boys were going astray’. Says Daadan Khap’s ‘secretary’, Jogi Ram, “Elders should ask their children to play kabaddi, kho-kho and wrestling. Cricket is not a game at all.” Those found guilty, the Khap warned, would be fined “for seven generations”. Unconfirmed reports state that Khaps near Karnal district have banned television and the radio.

Khaps are willing to barter their ‘honour’ for monetary compensation and material assets

THE LURE OF EASY MONEY
While the murder of same-gotra couples by these ‘custodians of tradition’ is commonplace, Khaps have devious ways of making their roles as custodians profitable ones. In September 2006, Pawan and Kavita visited their parents in Katlehri in Karnal district, Haryana. Kavita delivered a son the day after her arrival. Ten days later, the Bombak Khap declared that since the couple were from the same gotra, their baby was illegitimate and couldn’t remain with them. Uma, Pawan’s sisterin- law says, “The ten-day-old baby was roughly snatched away by the Khap’s representatives.” What followed was a bizarre panchayat meeting in which Kavita was beaten mercilessly until she agreed to tie a rakhi (a mark of being a sibling) on her husband’s wrist. Their son went missing for three months. The Khap claimed the baby was ‘given’ to a childless couple. Birmati, Pawan’s mother, says, “We found out that the Khap sold the baby to the couple for Rs 50,000.” After much pleading and media intervention, the Khap relented and their baby was returned – but only after the Khap got Rs 65,000 from Pawan and Kavita. The couple now live in Mumbai and plan never to return to their village.

Though the Khap says honour is paramount, it frequently barters this honour for material assets without blinking. On July 21, the Kadyan Khap fined the family Rs 1 lakh and ordered the permanent expulsion of 23-year-old Ravindra and his 15 family members from Dharana in Jhajjar district, Haryana. Ravindra (from the Gehlawat gotra) had married Shilpa (from the Kadyan gotra). Even though their gotras were different, Ravindra’s family had been living in a Kadyan village for generations and was hence ‘deemed’ a part of the same clan by the Khap, which declared their marriage void. Chattar Pradhan, the head of the Kadyan Khap gave the family 72 hours to dispose of their property and leave the village or face death. As time greedily ate away at the hours before the deadline was to expire, Ravindra’s 90-yearold grandmother Birna told TEHELKA, “I worked day and night on our farms. That is how we expanded our fields. Where on earth will I go now?” Kamal, Ravindra’s grandaunt is more bewildered. “They could have expelled Ravindra and his wife – but why the entire clan?” she says. Despite getting ‘police protection’, Ravindra’s family finally agreed to leave the village. As they left, their house was ransacked and their cattle were pelted with stones. When TEHELKA last met them, they were trudging towards Jugna village in Rohtak district. The police cannot (or will not) see any wrongdoing. According to the SHO Puran Singh of Beri police station, “They have gone to a neighbouring village to meet their relatives. Everything is under control.” The Khap will now control the family’s property — all 53 acres of prime land. Even Jaivir, the ‘legally-elected’ sarpanch of Dharana village refuses to side with Ravinder’s family, saying, “I am not above society’s rules. If society has decided to expel them and seal their property, they have to abide by the decision.”

Cricket leads young boys astray. They fight and gamble on matches. The family of anyone playing cricket will be fined for seven generations’

Daadan Khap, on banning cricket in Jind in 2007

Unchallenged Chattar Pradhan (left), head of the Kadyan Khap, which banned DJs in wedding parties

‘The Khap has asked us to play kabaddi and kho kho instead of cricket. They are our elders. We have to follow their rules.’

Raja Singh, a youth from Jind, where cricket is banned

Where does the money go? Says Paramjit Banawala, President, Akhil Bhartiya Adarsh Jat Mahasabha, “The money goes to charity, temples and new gaushalas (cow shelters).” When asked who pockets the profits from gaushalas, he retorts, “Who else but Khap members?”

Khaps have tremendous political backing. During elections, Khaps declare which candidate they support and the entire community votes accordingly. Unsurprisingly, during the Lok Sabha elections this year, 46 Khaps in Narwana district in Jind were so bold as to ‘reject’ the Hindu Marriage Act and declare that all politicians who came asking for votes had to promise a new law that prohibited same-gotra marriages or marriages within the same village. In a reflection of Khap power, when Ved Pal was lynched, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana’s chief minister refused to intervene, saying, “It’s a social matter and society has the right to decide.” Not one political party has taken up the cases of honour killings and Khap diktats. Raj Singh Chaudhuri, an activist based in Asandh says, “It is difficult to convince the police to act in such cases as they too believe in the Khaps.”

Asaresult,politicalmovementsagainst the atrocities of the Khaps fails to gain any momentum. Mani Shankar Aiyar, former MinisterforPanchayatiRajsays,“Theyare absolutelyillegal.Khapsareself-appointed custodians of various communities who have gained a moral force over time. It’s difficult to take them head on but they should be abolished in the same manner that Satiwas.”OnJuly 28, inawritten reply in the Rajya Sabha,Home Minister P Chidambaramobserved,“ Weshouldhangour head in shame” because of honour killings and said that the government could classify such crimes separately.

Ranbir Singh, a sociologist who has worked extensively on castes in Haryana gives an interesting explanation for the dominance of Khaps in Haryana. A research paper he has authored states, “Jats, being marginal farmers, have not only been bypassed by the process of economic development but have been further marginalized by it. This is because they could not take advantage of the Green Revolution due to their tiny and uneconomic land holdings, could not enter modern professions due to a lack of academic qualifications and could not take up some other occupations due to caste pride. Their lot has been made even more difficult by the processes of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. Their disenchantment with political leadership has made these pauperised peasants look backwards instead of forward.”

Till laws accurately define and punish these malign anachronisms and until the political will is found to abolish them, Khap panchayats will continue to brew a poisonous cocktail of crime, ignorance and bigotry.

WRITER’S EMAIL
neha@tehelka.com

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 32, Dated August 15, 2009

Posted in Caste Issues, Dalit Issues, General, Human Rights, Panchayats, Recent News, intercaste marriages | Tagged: Dalit, intercaste marriages, Panchayats | 4 Comments »

The Best Online Sources for News and Analysis on the 2009 Indian Lok Sabha Elections

Posted by samathain on April 23, 2009

(Samatha)
This is an example of what alternative media can achieve.

Of these, most promising is the new medium of Crowd-Sourced crisis information. Checkout Vote Report for a sample. This is a promising media for reporting
issues ignored by the mainstream media. Dalits and minorities should use these tools to make sure their stories are not ignored. Eye witnesses and victims could use SMS /Email/Web to report what they know about a particular story. You could be a Citizen Journalist using just your mobile. Imagine, you can report from a rural village too.

In addition to the promise of this technology, use the information below to keep tabs on Indian elections 2009.

Source : Vote Report

As the campaigns for the 2009 Indian Lok Sabha elections heat up, several new websites are aiming to become the default source of news and analysis related the 2009 general elections.

These websites, however, are directly competing with election microsites from mainstream media — Hindustan Times/ Google, TOI, Mint, DNA, The Hindu, Yahoo!, MSN, Rediff, NDTV, IBN Live, India Today, The Week, Economic Times, India TV, Aaj Tak, Business Standard, BBC and Al Jazeera– and need to offer something different to be useful.

All the mainstream media election microsites have similar features: details about parties, constituencies, candidates and manifestos, statistics about previous elections, and an overload of news and opinion related to the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. However, some microsites have unique features which stand out, so let me start by pointing to my favorite, often interactive, features on the mainstream media websites.

DNA, India Today, Business Standard and IBN Politics have user friendly pages for columns by some very well-known writers.

Google election microsite

The Hindustan Times/ Google election microsite is based on Google gadgets which allows you to add individual features to your iGoogle page.

The WordPress-based Hindu Election Blog allows you to subscribe to specific tags and categories.

MSN has a useful news aggregator which allows to you find news by candidate, party, or state.

The Outlook India Election Blog is doing a great curation role by linking to important stories from elsewhere.
Indipepal blog aggregator

Of the new players, IndiPepal is perhaps the most ambitious, with blogs from several well-known analysts.

India Voting and Engage Voter also have content rich websites with some interesting features.

BlogAdda has media aggregator

BlogAdda has a very well designed social media aggregator for the elections, which collates photos, videos, and posts from election-focused blogs.

OneVote also has a well designed social media aggregator that collates photos, videos, tweets, blog posts and news reports related to the India elections.

Global Voices has special coverage

As always, the Global Voices special coverage page for the 2009 Indian elections is quickly evolving into a useful resource to track the conversations in the Indian blogosphere related to the elections.

We are hoping that Vote Report India will become a useful part of this great eco-system of sources for news and analysis related the 2009 general elections.

Vote Report India is a collaborative citizen-driven election monitoring platform for the 2009 Indian general elections.

Basically, users contribute direct SMS, email, and web reports on violations of the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct (PDF). The platform will then aggregate these direct reports with news reports, blog posts, photos, videos and tweets related to the elections from all relevant sources, in one place, on an interactive map.

By aggregating both traditional and non-traditional sources of news on a clickable, searchable map, we are hoping that Vote Report India will not only increase transparency and accountability in the Indian election process, but also provide the most complete picture of public opinion in India during the elections.

We’ll also help you make sense of this rich information, by doing roundups for important issues on the Vote Report India blog.

The direct reporting functionality is already up and the ability to aggregate content from other sources will be up soon.

We would encourage you to spend some time at our website and project wiki to get a sense of what we are doing. If you like what we are doing, please join the Vote Report India community at Twitter (@votereportindia), Facebook, Orkut, SMSGupShup or Google Groups and subscribe to our blog. If you have a blog or a website, please consider writing about Vote Report India and displaying our banners (200X200 and 150X150). If possible, consider volunteering for one of our open work streams.

But, most importantly, do use and encourage others to use the Vote Report India platform, and help us make the election process more transparent.

Posted in Current Affairs, General, Indian Election, Recent News | Tagged: Current Affairs, Elections 2009, General, india, Indian elections, Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha 2009, Recent News | Leave a Comment »

Mayawati’s promise to India : BSP Manifesto

Posted by samathain on April 16, 2009

Source: ZESTCaste

(Samatha)
By ignoring the importance of capital and the capitalists who drive it, Mayawati would be committing the same mistake russia/cuba did in taking up anti-capitalist posture. Capitalism is important for innovation. These market forces reward hardwork, determination, individual drive and luck. This “power of the individual” is very important for a society to keep its best people involved in the community. Only then the society will progress.An updated Nehruvian model of welfare state and private enterprise is better suited for India. Providing hope for the poor in terms of quotas would help india close the gap between its oceans of poverty and islands of prosperity. This would dissuade the frustrated youth from taking extreme measures. It is unfortunate that Mayawati has no comments on secularism or corruption or moral policing or the economic crisis. These issues do affect Sarva Jan. It is possible that Mayawati is trying to differentiate her party from other mainstream parties.

Highlights of Mayawati’s promises and achievements:

their economic policies are not prepared
for removing the hardship of the general public

constituted a separate
welfare department for every segment of that society

selecting
under the “Dr.Ambedkar Rural Development Scheme” villages with
preponderance of the Dalit population in particular has decided to
cover them with every kind of essential amenities

Urban Integrated Development Scheme

under a “Sarvjan Hitay
urban Slum Area Ownership right Scheme” has decided to give ownership
right to residential plots measuring a maximum of 30sq. meters and
minimum of 15sq. meters and commercial plots for employment measuring
a maximum of 10 sq. meters

provided scholarship to the poor children from the Other Backward
Classes (OBCs) and religious minorities, particularly Muslims

send students of the newly established
Gautam Buddha University in Gautam Buddha Nagar district (Great Noida)
at government expense to Europe or other foreign countries for higher
education

separate provision of 25 per cent fund has been
made for the first time in the budget for SC/ST

for creating a sense of
security among the Bahujan Samaj people a provision of “reservation”
has been made for the first time in the country for police station
officers

by including the economically backward people in
the Muslim society in the list of the backward classes, our party’s
government has for the first time in the state made available to them
the benefit of reservation in education and state level government
jobs

cleared the backlog of the “reserved
quota” vacancies for the people of the Scheduled Castes/Tribes and
Other Backward Classes in government jobs and other areas at the state
level which had not been filled up for years

securing the
benefit of “Reservation” for the Scheduled Castes/Tribes and Other
Backward Classes in the areas like the judiciary, council of
ministers, Rajya Sabha, Legislative Council and the private sector

congress party and BJP and their
allies have been trying to end reservation gradually by giving to the
Private Sector on a large scale those “government departments” and
“institutions” in the Centre and all the states of the country

B.S.P. government is the only one in the entire country which has
ensured a guarantee for maintaining the earlier available reservation
system even after a “government department” and “institution” is
handed over to the private sector

party is in favour of providing
separate reservation to the poor people of this class on an economic
basis

our party’s government has always been fully
sensitive and serious over the issue of social security

instead of giving unemployment allowance
to the youths is giving them an opportunity to live with dignity,
self-respect and self-reliance by making provision for permanent
employment

our government has granted
“inheritance right” to unmarried daughters from the Sarva Samaj in the
property of their father

“Mahamaya garib Balika
Ashirvad Yojana” (Mahamaya Scheme of blessings for poor girls). After the launching of this
scheme, the birth of a girl child instead of being viewed as a burden
will strengthen a tendency to view it as a welcome event

Savitri Bai Phule
Balika Shiksha Madad Yojana” (Savitri Bai Phule Scheme of assistance
for education of girls)

full honour and respect to many Sants, Gurus and great men born
in the Bahujan Samaj

create in the
entire country an atmosphere free from “injustice, crime and fear” by
establishing a “Rule of Law by Lawful Means”

wean them away from the path of Naxalism

our party will pay full attention towards terrorism also

Better National Rural Employment Guarantee

our party wants growth of capital and not
development of capitalists in the country

every “Economic Policy” of our country will be designed to
bendfit the general public and not make the rich richer and the poor
poorer

Bahujan Samaj Party

” APPEAL”

For

Lok Sabha General Elections -2009

Brothers and Sisters,

As it is known to all, Bahujan Samaj Party or B.S.P. is the only party
in the country, which believers in ” deeds and not in words“. That is
why our party, unlike other parties doses not release an election
“Manifesto” rather B.S.P. only makes an ” APPEAL” to people for
votes, enabling it to complete the unfinished works of the Sants,
Gurus and great men born in the Bahujan Samaj from time to time,
especially Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj,
Narayana Guru, Parapujya Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimraro Ambedkar and Manyavar
Shri Kanshi Ram Ji by following the path show by them so that it can
produce good results in the elections to gain power and them with the
“Masterkey” of political power can make the lives of the suffering and
oppressed people prosperous in every respect. This is because
parampujya Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimraro Ambedkar was of the view that
“political power is a master-key by which all the problems can be
solved”.

By following this very thinking of Baba Saheb Dr. Ambedkar, our party
is contesting these general elections for Lok Sabha on all the seats
alone on its own strength and with preparedness, in other words our
party has not forged any electoral alliance of any kind with any party
in these elections.

But here the main question that arises is why it is essential for the
general public of the country to cast their votes for the B.S.P. alone
and not for the Congress and B.J.P . and their allies? This main and
essential point will have to be understood.

In this regard, it is the contention of the B.S.P. that it is the only
party in the country the ” Ideology and Policies” and ” Work Style” of
which are in the interest of the Sarva Samaj (entire society ) and
that our party does whatever it says in the interest of the Sarva
Samaj whereas other parties make a lot of promises and do very little,
in other words most of their work is projected on paper, and very
little is seen as being implemented on ground.

This is the main reason why because of wrong policies of the parties
having a casteist mindset no significant shange has come about even 61
years after the country’s Independence in the ” social and economic ”
condition of the “Bahujan Samaj, which comprises the Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and religious
minorities like the Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Buddhists
etc., who account for 85 per cent of the country’s total population.

And I have mentioned about ” Wrong Policies “ here because the parties
which have so far formed governments in the Center and most of the
states In the country have been depending on financial help from big
capitalists as a result of which these parties on coming to power
tailor their every “Economic Policy” to suit the needs of those
capitalist, in other words their economic policies are not prepared
for removing the hardship of the general public. This is the main
reason why the economic condition of the Bahujan Samaj people as well
as of the poor people belonging to Upper Castes continues to be bad
and pitiable even now.

Keeping all this in view, we had to form a separate political party by
the name of ” Bahujan Samaj Party” (B.S.P) on April 14, 1984, under
the leadership of “Manyavar Shri Kanshi Ram Ji” by following the path
shown by parampujya Baba Saheb. Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar and by now it has
emerged as an important party at the “national level”.

Not only this, our party has rather gradually increased its mass-base
throughout the country and also sent its MPs to Parliament and MLAs
to legislatures in several states. Besides, government has been formed
under the leadership of our party in Uttar Pradesh four times and
during all the four termes of office our party’s government has taken
full care of the interests of the Sarav Samaj, but it has given
priority to those people of the Bahujan Samaj, who had been neglected
on a large scale in “social and economic” spheres by the governments
of other parties in the past. Taking this issue of neglect seriously,
our party’s government in order to bring about an improvement in the
“social and economic” condition of the Bahujan Samaj people in Uttar
Pradesh has for the first time in the country constituted a separate
welfare department for every segment of that society and by selecting
under the “Dr.Ambedkar Rural Development Scheme” villages with
preponderance of the Dalit population in particular has decided to
cover them with every kind of essential amenities and now the name of
this scheme has been changed to the “Baba Saheb Dr.Ambedkar Uttar
Pradesh Gramsabha Integrated Development Scheme”.

Similarly, an “Urban Integrated Development Scheme” has also been
launched in the name of Manyavar Shri Kanshi Ram Ji, through which
all the cities, towns and ‘kasbas’, big and small, in Uttar Pradesh
are being developed in a phased manner.

Besides , to a large number of poor people in the urban areas of Uttar
Pradesh , who because of their helpessness had settled unauthorisedly
on the land of the state government departments and have been living
there since before 15.01.2009, our government under a “Sarvjan Hitaiy
urban Slum Area Ownership right Scheme” has decided to give ownership
right to residential plots measuring a mximum of 30sq. meters and
minimum of 15sq. meters and commercial plots for employment measuring
a maximum of 10 sq. meters. In the history of the state such a
decision had not been taken by any of the past governments because of
which the poor people in a large number have been exploited for years
by government employees, land -mafias and employees of municipalities
etc. But since 15.01.2209 after implementation of this scheme from my
birthday, they have got ownership right to their residential plot in
urban areas, while they have also got freedom from all kinds of
exploitation.

Along with this , the government land lying vacant is being
distributed with actual possession therefore for a two-room pucca
house and for cultivation to the poor helpess people of the Sarv Samaj
in the states with priority to the Dalits, exploited and backwards in
particular, which has so far benefited lakhs of poor people in the
state and this process is still continuing.

For promoting eduction, like for the children of the Scheduled Castes
/Tribes, our party’s government has for the first time in India
provided scholarship to the poor children from the Other Backward
Classes (OBCs) and religious minorities, particularlyMuslims, and in
view of rise in pricies the scholarship is distributed to the students
soon after they take admission. Our government has arranged for “free
government coaching” for poor students of these classes to enable them
to get high ranking jobs.

Besides, along with these classes in uttarprasesh, a new era in the
field of higher and technical education has been ushered in for poor
children of the Savarn Samaj for which a historic decision has been
taken for the first time to send students of the newly established
Gautam Buddha University in Gautam Buddha Nagar district (Great Noida)
at government expense to Europe or other foreign countries for higher
education.

By giving priority to development of the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes a separate provision of 25 per cent fund has been
made for the first time in the budget for them. Similarly, for
creating a sense of security them. Similarly, for creating a sense of
security among the Bahujan Samaj people a provision of “reseversation”
has been made for the first time in the country for police station
officers.

Full care has also been tken of the interests of the biggest
constituent of the “religious minority society” the Muslims, in
particular in every sphere. Their economic development has been
ensured and their lives, properties and religion have been fully
protected. Besides, by including the economically backward people in
the Muslim society in the list of the backward classes, our party’s
government has for the first time in the state made available to them
the benefit of reservation in education and state level government
jobs.

A New Initiative in Respect of reservation: In regard to reservation
too, we in all the four terms of our rule in Uttar Pradesh have
conducted a special drive and cleared the backlog of the “reserved
quota” vacancies for the people of the Scheduled Castes/Tribes and
Other Backward Classes in government jobs and other areas at the state
level which had not been filled up for years.

Besides, our party has been making relentless efforts for securing the
benefit of “Reservation” for the Scheduled Castes/Tribes and Other
Backward Classes in the areas like the judiciary, council of
ministers, Rajya Sabha, Legislative Council and the private sector
etc., all over the country in which reservation has not yet been
provided to them by the Central Government. In this regard letters
have been written to the Central government several times. Along with
this, our party has written several times to the Central Government
for providing the benefit of additional reservation to those people of
the Scheduled Castes/Tribes who have become Christians or Muslims
through religious conversion by including them in the list of
Scheduled Castes/Tribes by keeping intact the present fixed quota of
reservation for the latter. But the government of no party formed in
the Centre so far has acceded to this reasonable demand of these
people.

This not all, the governments of the congress party and BJP and their
allies have been trying to end reservation gradually by giving to the
Private Sector on a large scale those “government departments” and
“institutions” in the Centre and all the states of the country in
which the people of the Scheduled Castes/Tribes and Other Backward
Classes have been getting job reservation under government, as there
is no provision of reservation as yet in the private sector for these
classes at the Central and the state levels. In a situation like this
the reservation for these classes will automatically come to an end
one day. Our party is very “worried” over this and in this regard the
people of these classes in the entire country also need to be very
“alert”.

And in this regard, it is also the belief of our party that this
reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other
Backward Classes (OBCs) in our country can be “protected” and
reservation made available to them in the areas in which they are not
yet getting this benefit only when these people form their own
government in the Centre and the states. And a concrete example of
this is the formation of our party’s government in Uttar Pradesh as
the B.S.P. government is the only one in the entire country which has
ensured a guarantee for maintaining the earlier available reservation
system even after a “government department” and “institution” is
handed over to the private sector.

Besides, in regard to reservation, I wish to tell the people of the
“upper caste society” that our party is in favour of providing
separate reservation to the poor people of this class on an economic
basis in the entire country. But it is the government in the “Centre”
which will have to introduce it by amending the Constitution.
Therefore, our party’s government has written several times to the
Central Government for providing separate reservation to the people of
this class on an economic basis. But the government of no party in the
Centre has so far agreed to this demand of ours. However, in this
regard, I wish to give this assurance to the people of the “upper
caste society” that the day our party’s government is formed in the
Centre like that in Uttar Pradesh it will make a meaningful effort to
remove poverty and unemployment of the people of the upper caste
society by certainly making the reservation facility available to them
even without their asking for it. And in this regard, you know it well
about the work culture of our party that it does what is says, in
other words there is no difference between its words and deeds.

Along with reservation, our party’s government has always been fully
sensitive and serious over the issue of social security. Therefore, we
have raised the amount of the old age/farmer pension from Rs.150 to
Rs.300. In addition, our party’s government immediately raised the
daily wages of the labourers from Rs.58(fifty-eight) to Rs.100 (one
hundred) for the labourers as it is in the most poor and weak class
and belongs mostly to the category of landless labourers to whom no
attention had been paid ever before because of their being
unorganized. And the daily wages of sanitation workers has also been
hiked from Rs.73 (seventy-three) to Rs.100 (one hundred).

This is also known to all that in the long rule for the Congress,
B.J.P. and their allies for about 61 years agriculture and farmers
have been neglected a great deal in the entire country, but our
party’s government has paid special attention to agriculture and
farmers also by keeping them in the priority category. Besides, our
government in Uttar Pradesh instead of giving unemployment allowance
to the youths is giving them an opportunity to live with dignity,
self-respect and self-reliance by making provision for permanent
employment for them. And from May 13, 2007 till January, 2009, in less
than two years, arrangement has been made for permanent employment for
seven lakhs people in government and for another two lakhs people in
non-government sector.

In addition to the interests of the poor and unemployed people of the
Sarva Samaj, our party’s government has taken full care of the
interest of “farmers” , “labourers”, “traders” and the people engaged
in “other occupations” and many important decisions have been taken in
their interests also.

Women Empowerment: Along with this, our government has granted
“inheritance right” to unmarried daughters from the Sarva Samaj in the
property of their father by amending the sectors-171 and 174 of the
Zamindari Abolition and Land Reform Act, 1950 for improving the social
and economic condition of women in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier during my
second tenure of rule in 1997 I had secured this “legal right” to
widows.

Besides, two important schemes have been launched on my 53rd birthday
by our party’s government for a bright future of girls in the state.
The first one has been launched by the name “Mahamaya garib Balika
Ashirvad Yojana” (Mahamaya Scheme of blessings for poor girls) under
which in the name of every girl born in the below the poverty line
families after January 15, 2009, a fixed deposit of a certain amount
is made and the girl on its maturity when she completes the age of 18
years will get a lump sum of Rs. One lakh. After the launching of this
scheme, the birth of a girl child instead of being viewed as a burden
will strengthen a tendency to view it as a welcome event and it will
also provide special help in correcting of the growing imbalance of
gender ratio gap in the state.

Similarly, the second scheme has been launched as “Savitri Bai Phule
Balika Shiksha Madad Yojana” (Savitri Bai Phule Scheme of assistance
for education of girls) under which a decision has been taken to
provide a lump sum amount for further studies to the girls of the
below the poverty line families, who have passed the standard tenth.

In this regard, I wish to inform you that when such a girl takes
admission to the standard eleventh, she is being given a lump sum of
Rs. 15 thousand and a ladies bicycle and when the girl passes the
standard eleventh examinations and takes admission to the standard
twelfth she will be given an additional amount of Rs.10000 by the
government for completing further studies. All these amounts will be
in addition to the scholarship or facilities provided under other
heads.

Along with these works, our party’s government in Uttar Pradesh has
given full honour and respect to many Sants, Gurus and great men born
in the Bahujan Samaj from time to time, who have been neglected by the
past governments. In their names many public welfare schemes have been
launched in the interests of the Sarva Samaj and several “new
districts”, “universities”, “memorials” and “museums” and parks etc.,
have been built in their memory.

Besides, I wish to tell you here that the Dalits, backwards and the
people of other neglected classes in the country have been victims of
atrocities and excesses of various kinds perpetrated by the people
having a casteist mindset from Independence till even now and they are
not able to get proper and timely justice. But our party after coming
to power in the Centre will not allow any class of the society in the
country, in other words it will do “justice” with honesty and
dedication to all and like in Uttar Pradesh it will create in the
entire country an atmosphere free from “injustice, crime and fear” by
establishing a “Rule of Law by Lawful Means”.

Along with this, in the absence of proper development of all the
regions in the country and because of want, injustice, exploitation,
poverty and deprivation some people are adopting and the path of
Naxalsim and governments in the Centre and the states have not so far
paid proper attention towards them, but our party on coming to power
in the Centre will wean them away from the path of Naxalism by finding
a “lasting solution” to all these problems of theirs and along with
this it will try to bring them in the mainstream of development by
providing “permanent employment” to them.

Besides, terrorism has emerged as a very big problem and serious
challenge in the country over the past few years and the main reason
for it appears to be “laxity” and “weaknesses” of the Central
Government itself and to a certain extent its political self-interest
as well. But our party will pay full attention towards this also.

And as far as the question of the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme is concerned, under this scheme there is a provision for
providing employment for only 100 days out of 365 days in a year and
that too for only one unemployed person in a family. But our party on
coming to power in the Centre will start a scheme for the poor people
living in rural areas of the entire country which will ensure
provision of permanent employment for these people throughout the year
for all the 365 days.

Besides, on our party coming to power in the Centre all its policies
at the “national and international” levels in every respect will be
framed by keeping in view the people of all the religious and castes
in the Sarva Samaj. And “foreign Policy” will also be evolved by
keeping all this in view. In other words, while framing foreign policy
and entering into any agreement with a foreign country, special
attention will be paid to the national security as well as the
country’s dignity, self-respect and sovereignty.

In addition, plans of “all the ministries” of the Central Government
will be reviewed and operated in a proper manner so that the general
public in the country is able to get the full benefit of all the
schemes directly and easily. Not only this, our party’s government
will not enter into any deal with any country in the world which may
lead to its subjugation by that country later on.

Along with this, our government will not frame any “Economic Policy”
in any area which like under the past governments will continue to
work for development of capitalists instead of formation of capital in
the country. In other words our party wants growth of capital and not
development of capitalists in the country so that the life of the
common people in both urban and rural areas including farmers,
workers, traders and those engaged in other occupations for employment
becomes prosperous.

Thus every “Economic Policy” of our country will be designed to
bendfit the general public and not make the rich richer and the poor
poorer as it has been happening during the rule of the Congress party,
B.J.P. and their allies so far in our country and most of the states.
And then only the poor people of this country will be able to get two
square meals in a proper way. It is only after this that the
missionary goal our party to create an environment of “Sarvjan Hitaiy
and Sarvjan Sukhaiy” (In the Interest of And For Happiness of All) in
the entire country can be realized in a true sense.

But for this to happen they will have to take the “Master Key of
Political Power” into their own hands by showing a good result of
their party in the Lok Sabha general elections being held now. And for
this, they will certainly have to be cautious against many tactics of
the opposition parties like attempts to cajole, coerce, lure and
divide because these parties can go to any extent to harm our party.

In this regard, the opposition parties will try their best to see in
particular that our party does not get the votes of the Savarn Samaj
and to this end they can also try to project the ideology and policies
of our party in a distorted manner before the upper castes. This is
despite the fact that the ideology and policies of our party are not
against any caste and religion, in other words the B.S.P. wants to
establish an “equalitarian social order” in this country by changing
the inequitable social order based on “caste line”, an objective that
is in the interest of the country and the Sarv Samaj. And if in this
“transformation of order” along with the Bahujan Samaj the people of
the Savarn Samaj also cooperate by changing their Casteist mindset,
then the doors of the Bahujan Samaj Party (B.S.P) are always open for
admission and advancement of such people with dignity and
self-respect. What I am implying is that the ideology and policies of
the B.S.P. are not against the people of the upper caste society.

In this regard, I would like the upper caste people to think over the
question why the B.S.P. would have kept these people in the
organization at the national and state levels had its ideology and
policies been against the Savarn Samaj? And then why would the B.S.P.
have fielded such people on its tickets in the Lok Sabha and Assembly
elections and on formation of its government inducted them into
honourable positions of ministers? From this, it is fully clear that
the ideology and policies of our party are based on the principle of
“Sarvjan Hitaiy and Sarvjan Sukhaiy” (Progress and Prosperity For
All).

Besides, with regard to the “Ideology and Policies” of the B.S.P., I
also want ot make it clear here that an “equalitarian social order” is
not going to be established in the country by organising the Bahujan
Samaj people alone. For this, we will have to carry along with us
Savarn Hindus also on the basisi of a spirit of social brotherhood by
changing their casteist mindset and then only an “equalitarian social
order” as envisioned by the architect of the Indian constitution Baba
Saheb Dr. Ambedkar can be really established in this country. And it
is only after this that the people of the Sarva Samaj can be united
together and distinctions of “high and low and caste and creed” can
come to end and then alone our party can get an opportunity to come to
power in the Centre and the states.

But the B.S.P. people will have to keep it in mind that the congress,
B.J.P. and their allies will not allow our party to come to power in
the Centre and the states that easily and that for preventing our
party from achieving this goal they will use machination of every kind
and our party will have to remain on guard against this at every step.

Along with this, it is my fervent appeal to our party people all over
the country “to remain alert so that their invaluable votes are
neither bought nor looted nor remain unused and no selfish person is
able to misuse their votes by ensnaring them in the name of caste and
creed, money, temple and mosque or by any other kind of emotional
blackmail, in other words they have to rise to the defence of
democracy with their lives. Therefore, in the interest of the Sarva
Samaj, the country and their respective state, they will have to place
the power in the Centre in the right hands, in other words in the
hands of the B.S.P. so that our party can frame its every policy on
the principle of Sarvjan Hitaiy and Sarvjan Sukhaiy in every walk of
life and make the lives of the Bahujan Samaj and the poor people of
upper caste society and other people engaged in various occupations
prosperous”.

In the end, keeping all this in view, I make this “APPEAL” to the
supporters, followers and well-wishers of our party not to get carried
away by alluring promises made in the election manifesto of opposition
parties and to act on the appeal of their party alone and to certainly
make all the B.S.P. candidates victorious in the Lok Sabha general
elections-2009 being held in the country now by pressing the button
facing the “Elephant” symbol of their own party.

(Kumari Mayawati)

National President

Bahujan Samaj Party

For Ushering In An Era

Of “Sarvjan Hitaiy &

Sarvjan Sukhaiy” In the Country, Vote For

The B.S.P. Candidates Only

Make B.S.P. Successful Bu Pressing The

Button facing “Elephant” Election Symbol.

B.S.P. Ki Kiya Pahchan

Neela Jhanda, Haathi Nishan

(What Is B.S.P Known By

With Blue Flag &

“Elephant” Election Symbol)

Posted in Current Affairs, Dalit heroes, General, Indian Election, Mayawati, Private Sector Reservation, Recent News, Reservations, Welfare Schemes | Tagged: Bahujan, BSP, Dalit, india, Indian elections, Indian Poor, Mayawati, Recent News, Reservations | 2 Comments »

FREE Online Books by Ambedkar

Posted by samathain on April 14, 2009

Source: Dalit India

(Samatha)

This is great news !!! Almost all of ambedkar books have been uploaded online for you to read freely, conveniently. Read below for details. Celebrate Amedkar Jayanthi by spreading this news through email and SMS. For various reasons, it had become difficult to get hold of ambedkar’s books. This is liberating !!!

Dr B R Ambedkar Books
I have uploaded almost all the books of Baba Saheb & other material at this blog, (http://drambedkarbooks.wordpress.com)

http://drambedkarbooks.wordpress.com/dr-b-r-ambedkar-books/

http://drambedkarbooks.wordpress.com/other-important-books/

http://drambedkarbooks.wordpress.com/about/

Posted in Ambedkar, Caste Issues, Dalit Books, Dalit Issues, Dalit Media, Dalit heroes, General, Inspiring Stories, economy | Tagged: Ambedkar, Ambedkar Books, Baba Saheb, Buddhism, Caste, Caste Issues, Constitution, Dalit, Dalit Literature, Democracy, Dlait Books, india | 8 Comments »

Need welfare, not development (of the rich)

Posted by samathain on April 10, 2009

(Samatha)
India is at cross roads. 2009 General elections present the indian voter with historic opportunity
to determine india’s destiny. Indian politicians and the intelligentsia have been carried away by the sudden riches, glitter of new shopping malls, choice of world class cars/consumer durables, roaring real estate etc. In this mad rush to “get rich”, welfare of the majority poor has been forgotten; Fragility of indian society weakened by centuries of discrimination, differences of caste / religion / languages have been ignored; Today, india is facing terrorism threats, moral policing sponsorship by state, raise of taliban like fundamentalists, growing naxalism among tribals, utter hopelessness and suicidal tendencies among the farmers, eviction of urban poor, starvation among poor families due to state’s flawed rationing based on APL/BPL criteria, ugly wealth accumulation because of open siding of state with the rich in the name of development etc.

World wide economic recession has forced people to realize that globalization and neoliberalism has driven the world’s wealth/resources to hands of few, while rendering the majority unemployed or underemployed. Left has done a service to the indian poor by slowing down this march of neoliberalists.

Main points:

Mantra of “development above politics” has blinded the leaders to the growing poverty as they were awed by the high rate of wealth accumulation. It didn’t help that politicians gained a lot of personal wealth in the name of “development” schemes.

Handing over the country’s precious resources like mines, water and land to private capitalists has enabled few to loot the country in the name of privatization. These resources belong to every citizen and hence their benefits should go to them. Instead, mantra of “privatization” has been used to reward few influential families.

Government’s withdrawal from banking institutions in the name of “private banking” has led the farmers to depend on money lenders and private banks. Every farmer suicide is direct result of this destruction of agricultural financing institutions. Waiving farmer loans is not going to help these farmers as these are victims of private banking. It will help only the rich farmers as they are the ones who could take loans from public sector banks.

Scrapping Banking Recruitment Boards, Professional College Entrance Exams etc has prevented the poor and the lower middleclass from taking up better skills and better jobs.

Development stimulus strategies are wasting huge amount of money on private capitalists, who are driven by profits, to improve job creation. Even Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects are getting misused to misallocate funds to private capitalists in the name of infrastructure development.

Urban poor has been evicted from their areas in the name of “encroachment”. It is actually “land grab” attempts to take control of precious urban real estate by vested interests.

Small traders and petty producers have been crushed by global trade, multi nationals, retail chains and raising cost.

There is an impending food shortage due to breakdown of rural agricultural economy. Rural labor is not available. High cost agriculture is not able to support the rural poor, who have been driven to the slums of the cities. This can only worsen law and order situation.

It is high time our politicians start batting for the poor. They are the majority. Misleading TV advertisments/ SMS Campaigns/ Glowering newspaper tributes is not going to fool the suffering, hungry poor. 2009 is “year of aam aadmi”.

Source: Frontline

Author: PRABHAT PATNAIK

Indian Politicians awed by flawed development slogans

Neoliberalism is in retreat and Election 2009 presents an opportunity to bury it and go for an alternative development strategy.

IN THE CENTRAL Hall of Parliament. Notwithstanding all exhortations to “keep development above politics”, a euphemism for getting a consensus around the neoliberal agenda, such a consensus proved elusive.

THE triumph of neoliberalism in India was never complete. The nationalised banks continued to remain state-owned; key public sector companies were not privatised; pension funds were not handed over to speculative finance capital; the currency was not made fully convertible; and the financial sector’s holding of foreign assets, other than the foreign exchange reserves of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), continued to remain minuscule. In short, the two interlinked and mutually reinforcing processes underlying neoliberalism, namely, the dismantling of the public sector and integration with global finance, remained arrested.

This happened not for want of trying by the proponents of neoliberalism. Every means, fair and foul, was adopted, including crash measures, for insurance privatisation for instance, by a government in its last days that had even been reduced to a minority. But they floundered in the face of stiff opposition by the trade unions, especially those in the financial sector, by the political Left, and by the progressive intelligentsia. The glee with which the neoliberal establishment greeted the break between the Left and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the alacrity with which it demanded that the neoliberal agenda should be rushed through after this break only underscore the significance of the Left’s resistance to neoliberalism. But even that resistance was not enough. Even the half-triumph of neoliberalism was enough to widen the hiatus in Indian society and shake modern Indian society to its very foundations.

The formation of a modern Indian nation out of an extraordinarily disparate population riven by millennia of caste, class, gender and other forms of oppression is one of the marvels of our times. It was made possible through the prolonged anti-colonial struggle that was founded upon an implicit “social contract”. This implicit “social contract”, which had been occasionally articulated earlier, notably in the Karachi Congress Resolution of 1931, was sought to be given expression to in the Constitution of the Republic. And central to it were: electoral democracy based on universal adult franchise, secularism, civil liberties, the end of caste and gender oppression, and the building of an egalitarian society. An economic regime that produces some of the world’s top billionaires at one end and thousands of peasant suicides on the other is a violation of that “social contract”; it endangers the foundation of the modern Indian nation. And neoliberalism constituted such a violation, above all by withdrawing state support from peasant and petty production.

Peasant and petty production can survive the onslaught of capitalism only through the active intervention of the state, and such survival must be ensured in a society like ours. The reason is not that the travails of the people in the process of transition from a declining petty production economy to an emerging capitalist one become unbearable when they are “between jobs”, and that the decline therefore needs to be fine-tuned. It does, but that is not the reason. The reason is that in the present conditions such a transition is simply not possible. The capacity of such capitalist development to generate employment is so low that not protecting peasant and petty production against displacement by such capitalist development can only produce a growing army of unemployed and underemployed paupers, that is, absolute immiserisation at one pole together with the growth of wealth at another.

Indeed the higher the rate of growth of the capitalist sector, the greater will be the scale of such absolute immiserisation, insofar as the higher growth impinges even more strongly on the petty production sector. The view that the solution to the persistence and even accentuation of poverty lies in the achievement of even higher rates of economic growth is thus erroneous; the higher growth itself can be, and has been, the cause of the accentuation of poverty.

The amelioration of poverty requires a state that prevents the decimation of petty production by capitalist development, that undertakes significant expenditure to provide welfare benefits to the entire working population and augment the social wage in both capitalist and non-capitalist sectors. The neoliberal state, by its very nature, cannot do this; indeed it does the opposite.

The term “neoliberal state” may cause surprise. After all, Nehruvian dirigisme and neoliberalism are often seen as two alternative possible policy sets that are available to the same state, that is, the same state is seen to be capable of pursuing either the one or the other. But this is a mistake. The transition from one policy to the other entails a change in the class configuration underlying the state, a change in the nature and composition of the dominant classes themselves, and hence also a change in the nature of the state. During the 1930s, for instance, when import-substituting industrialisation was undertaken in Latin America, replacing the earlier export-oriented strategy, this shift was accompanied by major political upheavals. It was not just a switch from one policy to another; this switch was part of a shift from one kind of state to another. The shift from Nehruvian dirigisme to neoliberalism in India was part of a worldwide shift from dirigiste to neoliberal regimes; in the advanced countries this shift was marked by the end of Keynesian demand management. This worldwide shift was the result of a process of “globalisation of finance”

Nation-states pursuing dirigiste policies had to bend to the caprices of international finance capital in order to prevent the flight of finance (unless they showed the political resolve to delink themselves altogether from the realm of globalised finance, which bourgeois states typically did not). Neoliberal policies, of “sound finance” (involving at best a small specified fiscal deficit); of trade and financial liberalisation; of rolling back the state from its interventionist role (except in the interests of finance capital); of privatising public sector units; and such like represented the interests and outlook of international finance capital.

Their pursuit accordingly entailed a shift in the character of the state, from one standing above classes and mediating between them (even while being a bourgeois state) to one that acted predominantly in the interests of the upper echelons of the bourgeoisie that was integrated with international finance capital. Expecting such a state to defend and protect petty production, to undertake welfare expenditure and to raise social wages, that is, to ameliorate poverty, is a chimera.

True, in India the transformation in the nature of the state was never complete. The framework of democracy constrained the march of neoliberalism, since within this framework the neoliberal agenda could never muster sufficient support for its total triumph; and yet this framework itself could not be jettisoned either. Notwithstanding all exhortations to “keep development above politics”, a euphemism for getting a consensus around the neoliberal agenda, such a consensus proved elusive. And yet even this half-triumph of neoliberalism, this semi-transformation of the state, was quite enough to do considerable damage, above all through its withdrawal of support to peasants and petty producers.

The cut in subsidies increased the input costs for the peasantry; the withdrawal from the goal of social banking reduced institutional credit to agriculture, throwing the peasantry back to the mercy of moneylenders for loans at exorbitantly high interest rates; the virtual winding up of extension services increased the peasantry’s direct exposure to, and dependence upon, multinational companies; trade liberalisation made the peasantry vulnerable to the vagaries of world market prices; the progressive dismantling of the domestic procurement mechanism removed even such protection as the growers of crops covered by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) could have got; and above all public expenditure deflation in the countryside reduced rural purchasing power drastically.

The upshot was not just agricultural stagnation and a decline in per capita foodgrain output in the period after the beginning of the 1990s; it was also a decline in per capita foodgrain absorption, which was even steeper than the output decline. The squeeze on purchasing power in rural India was so drastic that notwithstanding the declining per capita output, foodgrain stocks got built up whenever procurement operations were in force. And what was true of the peasants was equally true of other sections of petty producers as well. Squeezed between cheap imports on the one hand and rising input costs on the other, they experienced significant absolute impoverishment, to a point where their return per labour day fell below even the lowest minimum wage.

The tragedy, however, lies in the fact that the very same people who had been immiserised during the boom will get further immiserised during the crisis that is now upon us, the crisis that has been precipitated worldwide by the triumph of neoliberalism itself. The same neoliberal dispensation that had squeezed vast masses of the population during the boom has now precipitated a crisis in the course of which this squeeze will intensify.

But the crisis also spells the end of neoliberalism. It is obvious that the only way out of the global crisis is through fiscal stimuli in the form of increased government expenditures, which, to be effective, have to be coordinated across countries, and which, to be politically acceptable, have to be directed towards the welfare of the people. Such a coordinated stimulus, which would violate the tenets of “sound finance” and re-establish the proactiveness of the state, is obviously anathema for international finance capital and is being resisted by it. This resistance, however, only prolongs the crisis and strengthens the rejection of its ideology, neoliberalism, which is the cause both of the crisis and of its persistence. Neoliberalism clearly has reached the end of its tether.

In India, however, a novel effort is being made to rescue it. The government agrees that a fiscal stimulus has to be provided to get the economy out of the crisis, since all efforts at using monetary policy to revive demand have come a cropper. But in discussing the nature of this fiscal stimulus it emphasises larger “viability gap funding” for public-private-partnership (PPP) projects in the infrastructure sector. Larger government expenditure, in other words, should take the form of handing over larger amounts of funds to private capitalists in the name of developing infrastructure. Since PPP with viability gap funding was very much a part of the neoliberal agenda, this amounts to promoting neoliberalism even while apparently retreating from it, in a Keynesian direction, through having a larger fiscal deficit.

This strategy is not just futile in the present context, when the inducement to invest is so low that even larger government munificence is unlikely to help in inducing larger private investment, but also undemocratic, in a double sense. First, “infrastructure” being a portmanteau concept, promoting “infrastructure” development can mean anything from building a road in a village to building a five-star hotel; typically, the projects that are promoted in the name of “infrastructure” development prioritise the latter rather than the former, thereby ignoring people’s priorities. Secondly, the expenditure of public money is better done directly through a government accountable to the public than through transfers to private capitalists, the need for which is never established and the use of which is never monitored.

An appropriate fiscal stimulus, in the form of larger government expenditure on health, education, sanitation, drinking water, rural infrastructure, agricultural development, food security, and price support for the peasants and petty producers, will necessarily require controls over cross-border financial flows to prevent capital flight. It will also require an appropriate regime of protection which defends peasants and other primary commodity producers against the crash in world prices, which defends petty producers against cheap imports, and in general against the “beggar-my-neighbour” policies of other countries, and which ensures that the “leakages” of the impact of the fiscal stimulus are minimised.

All these entail a retreat from neoliberalism. But this retreat cannot be seen only as a temporary one. Overcoming the crisis has to be linked to an alternative development trajectory, a trajectory of peasant agriculture-led growth, which requires an economic regime altogether different from neoliberalism. The neoliberal regime, in other words, has to be buried for ever, which in turn is possible only if we shake off the hegemony of international finance capital. The struggle against neoliberalism, which had restricted its triumph to only a half-triumph, now needs to get intensified to roll it back altogether.

Posted in Current Affairs, Dalit Issues, General, economy | Tagged: Current Affairs, Dalit, economoy, economy, india, politics, poor | 1 Comment »

Genetic Evidence of Origins of Indian Caste Populations

Posted by samathain on March 24, 2009

(Samatha)
Below study indicates that Top three castes, Brahmins, Vysyas and Kshathriyas, are genetically more closer to europeans than other castes. Of course, all indian castes are much more closer to asian genes. However, this closer affinity of the upper castes to european genes is surprising. Because of marriage restrictions across castes, this genetic ancestry has got well preserved. Below genetic study challenges the general belief that economic oppression is the main reasons for the continued practice of caste system in india. Originally, caste system seems to have been devised to achieve racial separation. This is quite surprising. Lower castes have to realize that the system is like a pyramid scheme benefiting mainly those at the top of the hierarchy. Even though the backward castes also benefit because they get to oppress the dalits, they have to realize that the majority of the benefits will go to the few at the top. This genetic study reveals how a small community of people managed to take over a society and setup a system of hierarchical oppression based on caste in the name of religion to enslave a whole country for generations. It is cunning and highly shameful. We all know how weak and fragile this system is. Just a bunch of merchants from a small island of britain were able to run india for centuries because the majority were frustrated in every way. Thankfully, democracy has enabled this majority to slowly reassert themselves. Upper Castes should learn from history and resist temptation to take india back to feudal ways. We have to learn from pakistan which adopted feudal system. Today, the elite of pakistan are wondering how their enchanted world is coming to pieces. The very own religious groups they sponsored have today given birth to uncontrollable forces. A fair world is lot more durable, richer, more prosperous and more peaceful. Of Course, it is unrealistic to expect people in power to give it up. However, india is a land of ashoka (who renounced his winnings after war) and buddha (who gave up all royal pleasures for the sake of knowledge). Indian culture is always reminding us of the supremacy of sacrifice to achieve greater harmony. Hopefully, this will enable indian majority to reassert their place in the indian society in a peaceful way. Great indian elections enable this majority to voice their opinion.

Source : Genome Research

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Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Populations

+Author Affiliations

¹Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA; ²Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Tartu University and Estonian Biocentre, Tartu 51010, Estonia; ³Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA; ⁴Department of Anthropology, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India; ⁵Anthropological Survey of India, Calcutta, India; ⁶Department of Anthropology, University of Madras, Madras, Tamil Nadu, India; ⁷Laboratory of Molecular Systematics and Evolution, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA; ⁸Department of Human Genetics, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK; ⁹Department of Pathology, Biometry and Genetics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, New Orleans, Louisiana 70112, USA

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Abstract

The origins and affinities of the ∼1 billion people living on the subcontinent of India have long been contested. This is owing, in part, to the many different waves of immigrants that have influenced the genetic structure of India. In the most recent of these waves, Indo-European-speaking people from West Eurasia entered India from the Northwest and diffused throughout the subcontinent. They purportedly admixed with or displaced indigenous Dravidic-speaking populations. Subsequently they may have established the Hindu caste system and placed themselves primarily in castes of higher rank. To explore the impact of West Eurasians on contemporary Indian caste populations, we compared mtDNA (400 bp of hypervariable region 1 and 14 restriction site polymorphisms) and Y-chromosome (20 biallelic polymorphisms and 5 short tandem repeats) variation in ∼265 males from eight castes of different rank to ∼750 Africans, Asians, Europeans, and other Indians. For maternally inherited mtDNA, each caste is most similar to Asians. However, 20%–30% of Indian mtDNA haplotypes belong to West Eurasian haplogroups, and the frequency of these haplotypes is proportional to caste rank, the highest frequency of West Eurasian haplotypes being found in the upper castes. In contrast, for paternally inherited Y-chromosome variation each caste is more similar to Europeans than to Asians. Moreover, the affinity to Europeans is proportionate to caste rank, the upper castes being most similar to Europeans, particularly East Europeans. These findings are consistent with greater West Eurasian male admixture with castes of higher rank. Nevertheless, the mitochondrial genome and the Y chromosome each represents only a single haploid locus and is more susceptible to large stochastic variation, bottlenecks, and selective sweeps. Thus, to increase the power of our analysis, we assayed 40 independent, biparentally inherited autosomal loci (1 LINE-1 and 39 Aluelements) in all of the caste and continental populations (∼600 individuals). Analysis of these data demonstrated that the upper castes have a higher affinity to Europeans than to Asians, and the upper castes are significantly more similar to Europeans than are the lower castes. Collectively, all five datasets show a trend toward upper castes being more similar to Europeans, whereas lower castes are more similar to Asians. We conclude that Indian castes are most likely to be of proto-Asian origin with West Eurasian admixture resulting in rank-related and sex-specific differences in the genetic affinities of castes to Asians and Europeans.

Shared Indo-European languages (i.e., Hindi and most European languages) suggested to linguists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that contemporary Hindu Indians are descendants of primarily West Eurasians who migrated from Europe, the Near East, Anatolia, and the Caucasus 3000–8000 years ago (Poliakov 1974; Renfrew 1989a,b). These nomadic migrants may have consolidated their power by admixing with native Dravidic-speaking (e.g., Telugu) proto-Asian populations who controlled regional access to land, labor, and resources (Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994), and subsequently established the Hindu caste hierarchy to legitimize and maintain this power (Poliakov 1974; Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994). It is plausible that these West Eurasian immigrants also appointed themselves to predominantly castes of higher rank. However, archaeological evidence of the diffusion of material culture from Western Eurasia into India has been limited (Shaffer 1982). Therefore, information on the genetic relationships of Indians to Europeans and Asians could contribute substantially to understanding the origins of Indian populations.

Previous genetic studies of Indian castes have failed to achieve a consensus on Indian origins and affinities. Various results have supported closer affinity of Indian castes either with Europeans or with Asians, and several factors underlie this inconsistency. First, erratic or limited sampling of populations has limited inferences about the relationships between caste and continental populations (i.e., Africans, Asians, Europeans). These relationships are further confounded by the wide geographic dispersal of caste populations. Genetic affinities among caste populations are, in part, inversely correlated with the geographic distance between them (Malhotra and Vasulu 1993), and it is likely that affinities between caste and continental populations are also geographically dependent (e.g., different between North and South Indian caste populations). Second, it has been suggested that castes of different rank may have originated from or admixed with different continental groups (Majumder and Mukherjee 1993). Third, the size of caste populations varies widely, and the effects of genetic drift on some small, geographically isolated castes may have been substantial. Fourth, most of the polymorphisms assayed over the last 30 years are indirect measurements of genetic variation (e.g., ABO typing), have been sampled from only a few loci, and may not be selectively neutral. Finally, only rarely have systematic comparisons been made with continental populations using a large, uniform set of DNA polymorphisms (Majumder 1999).

To investigate the origin of contemporary castes, we compared the genetic affinities of caste populations of differing rank (i.e., upper, middle, and lower) to worldwide populations. We analyzed mtDNA (hypervariable region 1 [HVR1] sequence and 14 restriction-site polymorphisms [RSPs]), Y-chromosome (5 short-tandem repeats [STRs] and 20 biallelic polymorphisms), and autosomal (1 LINE-1 and 39Alu inserts) variation in ∼265 males from eight different Telugu-speaking caste populations from the state of Andhra Pradesh in South India (Bamshad et al. 1998). Comparisons were made to ∼400 individuals from tribal and Hindi-speaking caste and populations distributed across the Indian subcontinent (Mountain et al. 1995;Kivisild et al. 1999) and to ∼350 Africans, Asians, and Europeans (Jorde et al. 1995, 2000; Seielstad et al. 1999).

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RESULTS

Analysis of mtDNA Suggests a Proto-Asian Origin of Indians

MtDNA HVR1 genetic distances between caste populations and Africans, Asians, and Europeans are significantly different from zero (p < 0.001) and reveal that, regardless of rank, each caste group is most closely related to Asians and is most dissimilar from Africans (Table 1). The genetic distances from major continental populations (e.g., Europeans) differ among the three caste groups, and the comparison reveals an intriguing pattern. As one moves from lower to upper castes, the distance from Asians becomes progressively larger. The distance between Europeans and lower castes is larger than the distance between Europeans and upper castes, but the distance between Europeans and middle castes is smaller than the upper caste-European distance. These trends are the same whether the Kshatriya and Vysya are included in the upper castes, the middle castes, or excluded from the analysis. This may be owing, in part, to the small sample size (n = 10) of each of these castes. Among the upper castes the genetic distance between Brahmins and Europeans (0.10) is smaller than that between either the Kshatriya and Europeans (0.12) or the Vysya and Europeans (0.16). Assuming that contemporary Europeans reflect West Eurasian affinities, these data indicate that the amount of West Eurasian admixture with Indian populations may have been proportionate to caste rank.

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Table 1.

MtDNA (HVR1 Sequence) Genetic Distances between Caste Groups from Andhra Pradesh and Continental Populations

Conventional estimates of the standard errors of genetic distances assume that polymorphic sites are independent of each other, that is, unlinked. Because mtDNA polymorphisms are in complete linkage disequilibrium (as are polymorphisms on the nonrecombining portions of the Y chromosome), this assumption is violated. Alternatively, the mtDNA genome can be treated as a single locus with multiple haplotypes. However, even if this assumption is made, mtDNA distances do not differ significantly from one another even at the level of the three major continental populations (Nei and Livshits 1989), the standard errors being greater than the genetic distances. Considering that the distances between castes and continental populations are less than those between different continental populations, the estimated mtDNA genetic distances between upper castes and Europeans versus lower castes and Europeans would not be significantly different from each other. Therefore, to resolve further the relationships of Europeans and Asians to contemporary Indian populations, we defined the identities of specific mtDNA restriction-site haplotypes.

The presence of the mtDNA restriction sitesDdeI_10,394 and AluI_10,397 defines a haplogroup (a group of haplotypes that share some sequence variants), M, that was originally identified in populations that migrated from mainland Asia to Southeast Asia and Australia (Ballinger et al. 1992;Chen et al. 1995; Passarino et al. 1996) and is found at much lower frequency in European and African populations. Most of the common haplotypes found in Telugu- and Hindi-speaking caste populations belong to haplogroup M (Table 2) and do not differentiate into language-specific clusters in a phylogenetic reconstruction (Fig. 1). Furthermore, these Indian haplogroup-M haplotypes are distinct from those found in other Asian populations (Fig. 2) and indicate the existence of Indian-specific subsets of haplogroup M (e.g., M3). As expected if the lower castes are more similar to Asians than to Europeans, and the upper castes are more similar to Europeans than to Asians, the frequencies of M and M3 haplotypes are inversely proportional to caste rank (Table 2).

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Table 2.

MtDNA Haplogroup Frequencies in Dravidic and Hindi-Speaking Indians

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Figure 1.

Phylogeny of haplogroup M in India. Phylogenetic relationships between HVR1 haplotypes were estimated by constructing reduced median networks. The size of each node is porportional to the haplotype frequency. Reticulations indicate parallel mutational pathways or multiple mutations. The identities of HVR1 mutations (numbered according to the Cambridge reference sequence +16000; Anderson et al. 1981) that define major haplogroup subsets are depicted along selected internodes. The coalescence estimate of Indian haplogroup-M haplotypes is 48,000 ± 1500 yr, suggesting that Indian-specific mtDNA haplotypes split from a proto-Asian ancestor in the late Pleistocene.

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Figure 2.

Major subsets of haplogroup M. Phylogenetic relationships of HVR1 haplotypes assigned to haplogroup M were estimated for: (a) 343 Indians (Quintana-Murci et al. 1999a; this study); (b) 16 Turks and 78 Central Asians (Comas et al. 1998; this study); (c) 60 Mongolians (Kolman et al. 1996); (d) 25 Ethiopians (Quintana-Murci et al. 1999a); (e) 56 Chinese (Horai et al. 1996; this study); (f) 103 Japanese (Horai et al. 1996; Seo et al. 1998). The founding node of each network (M*) differs from the CRS (Anderson et al. 1981) by transitions at np 10398, 10400, and 16223. The frequency of each subset of haplogroup M is indicated. Each phylogenetic network was pruned by eliminating branches containing haplotypes summing to a frequency of <5% (these branches were binned with the founder haplotype, M*). The identities of HVR1 mutations (numbered according to the CRS −16,000; Anderson et al. 1981) that define major haplotype subsets are depicted along selected internodes.

Of the non-Asian mtDNA haplotypes found in Indian populations, most are of West Eurasian origin (Table 2; Torroni et al. 1994; Richards et al. 1998). However, most of these Indian West-Eurasian haplotypes belong to an Indian-specific subset of haplogroup U, that is, U2i (Kivisild et al. 1999), the oldest and second most common mtDNA haplogroup found in Europe (Torroni et al. 1994). In agreement with the HVR1 results, the frequency of West Eurasian mtDNA haplotypes is significantly higher in upper castes than in lower castes (p < 0.05), the frequency of U2i haplotypes increasing as one moves from lower to higher castes. In addition, the frequency of mtDNA haplogroups with a more recent coalescence estimate (i.e., H, I, J, K, T) was fivefold higher in upper castes (6.8%) than in lower castes (1.4%). These haplotypes are derivatives of haplogroups found throughout Europe (Richards et al. 1998), the Middle East (Di Rienzo and Wilson 1991), and to a lesser extent Central Asia (Comas et al. 1998). Collectively, the mtDNA haplotype evidence indicate that contemporary Indian mtDNA evolved largely from proto-Asian ancestors with Western Eurasian admixture accounting for 20%–30% of mtDNA haplotypes.

Y-Chromosome Variation Confirms Indo-European Admixture

Genetic distances estimated from Y-chromosome STR polymorphisms differ significantly from zero (p < 0.001) and reveal a distinctly different pattern of population relationships (Table3). In contrast to the mtDNA distances, the Y-chromosome STR data do not demonstrate a closer affinity to Asians for each caste group. Upper castes are more similar to Europeans than to Asians, middle castes are equidistant from the two groups, and lower castes are most similar to Asians. The genetic distance between caste populations and Africans is progressively larger moving from lower to middle to upper caste groups (Table 3).

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Table 3.

Y Chromosome (STRs) Genetic Distances between Caste Groups from Andhra Pradesh and Continental Populations

Genetic distances estimated from Y-chromosome biallelic polymorphisms differ significantly from zero (p < 0.05), and the patterns differ from the mtDNA results even more strikingly than the Y-chromosome STRs. For Y-chromosome biallelic polymorphism data, each caste group is more similar to Europeans (Table4), and as one moves from lower to middle to higher castes the genetic distance to Europeans diminishes progressively. This pattern is further accentuated by separating the European population into Northern, Southern, and Eastern Europeans; each caste group is most closely related to Eastern Europeans. Moreover, the genetic distance between upper castes and Eastern Europeans is approximately half the distance between Eastern Europeans and middle or lower castes. These results suggest that Indian Y chromosomes, particularly upper caste Y chromosomes, are more similar to European than to Asian Y chromosomes. This underscores the close affinities between Hindu Indian and Indo-European Y chromosomes based on a previously reported analysis of three Y-chromosome polymorphisms (Quintana-Murci et al. 1999b).

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Table 4.

Y Chromosome (Bi-Allelic Polymorphisms) Genetic Distances between Caste Groups from Andhra Pradesh and Continental Populations

Overall, these results indicate that the affinities of Indians to continental populations varies according to caste rank and depends on whether mtDNA or Y-chromosome data are analyzed. However, conclusions drawn from these data are limited because mtDNA and the Y chromosome is each effectively a single haploid locus and is more sensitive to genetic drift, bottlenecks, and selective sweeps compared to autosomal loci. These limitations of our analysis can be overcome, in part, by analyzing a larger set of independent autosomal loci. Consequently, we assayed 1 LINE-1 and 39 unlinked Alu polymorphisms.

Affinities to Europeans and Asians Stratified by Caste Rank

Genetic distances estimated from autosomal Alu elements correspond to caste rank, the genetic distance between the upper and lower castes being more than 2.5 times larger than the distance between upper and middle or middle and lower castes (upper to middle, 0.0069; upper to lower, 0.018; middle to lower, 0.0071). These trends are the same whether the Kshatriya and Vysya are included in the upper castes, the middle castes, or excluded from the analysis (data not shown). Furthermore, a neighbor-joining network of genetic distances between separate castes (Fig. 3) clearly differentiates castes of different rank into separate clusters. This is similar to the relationship between genetic distances and caste rank estimated from mtDNA (Bamshad et al. 1998). It is important to note, however, that the autosomal genetic distances are estimated from 40 independent loci. This afforded us the opportunity to test the statistical significance of the correspondence between genetic distance and caste status. The Mantel correlation between interindividual genetic distances and distances based on social rank was low but highly significant for individuals ranked into upper, middle, and lower groups (r = 0.08; p < 0.001) and into eight separate castes (r = 0.07; p < 0.001). Given the resolving power of this autosomal dataset, we next tested whether we could reconcile the results of the analysis of mtDNA and Y-chromosome markers in castes and continental populations.

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Figure 3.

Neighbor-joining network of genetic distances among caste communities estimated from 40 Alu polymorphisms. Distances between upper castes (U; Brahmin, Vysya, Kshatriya), middle castes (M; Yadava, Kapu), and lower castes (L; Mala, Madiga, Relli) are significantly correlated with social rank.

Genotypic differentiation was significantly different from zero (p < 0.0001) between each pair of caste populations and between each caste and continental population. Similar to the results of both the mtDNA and Y-chromosome analyses, the distance between upper castes and European populations is smaller than the distance between lower castes and Europeans (Table 5). However, in contrast to the mtDNA results but similar to the Y-chromosome results, the affinity between upper castes and Europeans is higher than that of upper castes and Asians (Table 5). If the Kshatriya and Vysya are excluded from the analysis or included in the middle castes, the genetic distance between the upper caste (Brahmins) and Europeans remains smaller than the distance between the lower castes and Europeans and the distance between upper castes and Asians (Table 5). Analysis of each caste separately reveals that the genetic distance between the Brahmins and Europeans (0.013) is less than the distance between Europeans and Kshatryia (0.030) or Vysya (0.020). Nevertheless, each separate upper caste is more similar to Europeans than to Asians.

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Table 5.

Autosomal Genetic Distances between Caste Groups from Andhra Pradesh and Continental Populations

Because historical evidence suggests greater affinity between upper castes and Europeans than between lower castes and Europeans (Balakrishnan 1978, 1982; Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994), it is appropriate to use a one-tailed test of the difference between the corresponding genetic distances. The 90% confidence limits of Nei’s standard distances estimated between upper castes and Europeans (0.006–0.016) versus lower castes and Europeans (0.017–0.037) do not overlap, indicating statistical significance at the 0.05 level. Significance at 0.05 is not achieved if the Kshatriya and Vysya are excluded. These results offer statistical support for differences in the genetic affinity of Europeans to caste populations of differing rank, with greater European affinity to upper castes than to lower castes.

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DISCUSSION

Previous genetic studies have found evidence to support either a European or an Asian origin of Indian caste populations, with occasional indications of admixture with African or proto-Australoid populations (Chen et al. 1995; Mountain et al. 1995; Bamshad et al. 1996, 1997; Majumder et al. 1999; Quintana-Murci et al. 1999a). Our results demonstrate that for biparentally inherited autosomal markers, genetic distances between upper, middle, and lower castes are significantly correlated with rank; upper castes are more similar to Europeans than to Asians; and upper castes are significantly more similar to Europeans than are lower castes. This result appears to be owing to the amalgamation of two different patterns of sex-specific genetic variation.

The majority of Indian mtDNA restriction-site haplotypes belong to Indian-specific subsets (e.g., M3) of a predominantly Asian haplogroup M, although a substantial minority of mtDNA restriction site haplotypes belong to West Eurasian haplogroups. A higher proportion of proto-Asian mtDNA restriction-site haplotypes is found in lower castes compared to middle or upper castes, whereas the frequency of West Eurasian haplotypes is positively correlated with caste rank, that is, is highest in the upper castes. For Y-chromosome STR variation the upper castes exhibit greatest similarity with Europeans, whereas the lower caste groups are most similar to Asians. For Y biallelic polymorphism variation, each caste group is more similar to Europeans than to Asians, and the affinity to Europeans is proportional to caste rank, that is, is highest in the upper castes.

Importantly, five different types of data (mtDNA HVR1 sequence, mtDNA RSPs, Y-chromosome STRs, Y-chromosome biallelic polymorphisms, and autosomal Alu polymorphisms) support the same general pattern: relatively smaller genetic distances from European populations as one moves from lower to middle to upper caste populations. Genetic distances from Asian populations become larger as one moves from lower to middle to upper caste populations. It is especially noteworthy that the analysis of Y biallelic polymorphisms, which involved an independent set of comparative Asian, European, and African populations, again indicated the same pattern. Additional support is offered by the fact that the autosomal polymorphisms yielded a statistically significant difference between the upper-caste–European and lower-caste–European genetic distances. With additional loci, other differences (e.g., the distances between different caste groups and Asians) may also reach statistical significance.

The most likely explanation for these findings, and the one most consistent with archaeological data, is that contemporary Hindu Indians are of proto-Asian origin with West Eurasian admixture. However, admixture with West Eurasian males was greater than admixture with West Eurasian females, resulting in a higher affinity to European Y chromosomes. This supports an earlier suggestion of Passarino et al. (1996), which was based on a comparison of mtDNA and blood group results. Furthermore, the degree of West Eurasian admixture was proportional to caste rank. This explanation is consistent with either the hypothesis that proportionately more West Eurasians became members of the upper castes at the inception of the caste hierarchy or that social stratification preceded the West Eurasian incursion and that West Eurasians tended to insert themselves into higher-ranking positions. One consequence is that shared Indo-European languages may not reflect a common origin of Europeans and most Indians, but rather underscores the transfer of language mediated by contact between West Eurasians and native proto-Indians.

West Eurasian admixture in Indian populations may have been the result of more than one wave of immigration into India. Kivisild et al. (1999)determined the coalescence (∼50,000 years before present) of the Indian-specific subset of the West Eurasian haplotypes (i.e., U2i) and suggested that West Eurasian admixture may have been much older than the purported Dravidian and Indo-European incursions. Our analysis of Indian mtDNA restriction-site haplotypes that do not belong to the U2i subset of West Eurasian haplotypes (i.e., H, I, J, K, T) is consistent with more recent West Eurasian admixture. It is also possible that haplotypes with an older coalescence were introduced by Dravidians, whereas haplotypes with a more recent coalescence belonged to Indo-Europeans. This hypothesis can be tested by a more detailed comparison to West Eurasian mtDNA haplotypes from Iran, Anatolia, and the Caucasus. Alternatively, the coalescence dates of these haplotypes may predate the entry of West Eurasians populations into India. Regardless of their origin, West Eurasian admixture resulted in rank-related differences in the genetic affinities of castes to Europeans and Asians. Furthermore, the frequency of West Eurasian haplotypes in the founding middle and upper castes may be underestimated because of the upward social mobility of women from lower castes (Bamshad et al. 1998). These women were presumably more likely to introduce proto-Asian mtDNA haplotypes into the middle and upper castes.

Our analysis of 40 autosomal markers indicates clearly that the upper castes have a higher affinity to Europeans than to Asians. The high affinity of caste Y chromosomes with those of Europeans suggests that the majority of immigrating West Eurasians may have been males. As might be expected if West Eurasian males appropriated the highest positions in the caste system, the upper caste group exhibits a lower genetic distance to Europeans than the middle or lower castes. This is underscored by the observation that the Kshatriya (an upper caste), whose members served as warriors, are closer to Europeans than any other caste (data not shown). Furthermore, the 32-bp deletion polymorphism in CC chemokine receptor 5, whose frequency peaks in populations of Eastern Europe, is found only in two Brahmin males (M. Bamshad and S.K. Ahuja, unpubl.). The stratification of Y-chromosome distances with Europeans could also be caused by male-specific gene flow among caste populations of different rank. However, we and others have demonstrated that there is little sharing of Y-chromosome haplotypes among castes of different rank (Bamshad et al. 1998;Bhattacharyya et al. 1999).

The affinity of caste populations to Europeans is more apparent for Y-chromosome biallelic polymorphisms than Y-chromosome STRs. This could be attributed to the use of different European populations in comparisons using STRs and biallelic polymorphisms. Alternatively, it may reflect, in part, the effects of high mutation rates for the Y-chromosome STRs, which would tend to obscure relationships between caste and continental populations. A lack of consistent clustering at the continental level has been observed in several studies of Y-chromosome STRs (Deka et al. 1996; Torroni et al. 1996; de Knijff et al. 1997). The autosomal Alu and biallelic Y-chromosome polymorphisms, in contrast, have a slower rate of drift than Y-chromosome STRs because of a higher effective population size, and their mutation rate is very low. Thus, the Y-chromosome biallelic polymorphisms and autosomal Alu markers may serve as more stable markers of worldwide population affinities.

Our analysis may help to explain why estimates of the affinities of caste groups to worldwide populations have varied so widely among different studies. Analyses of recent caste history based on only mtDNA or Y-chromosome polymorphisms clearly would suggest that castes are more closely related to Asians or to Europeans, respectively. Furthermore, we attempted to minimize the confounding effect of geographic differences between populations by sampling from a highly restricted region of South India. Because of the ubiquity of the caste system in India’s history, it is reasonable to predict similar patterns in caste populations living in other areas. Indeed, any genetic result becomes more compelling when it is replicated in other populations. Therefore, comparable studies in caste populations from other regions of India must be completed to test the generality of these results.

The dispersal and subsequent growth of Indian populations since the Neolithic Age is one of the most important events to shape the history of South Asia. However, the origin and dispersal route of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent is unclear. Our findings suggest a proto-Asian origin of the Indian-specific haplogroup-M haplotypes. Haplogroup-M haplotypes are also found at appreciable frequencies in some East African populations— ∼18% of Ethiopians (Quintana-Murci et al. 1999a) and 16% of Kenyans (M. Bamshad and L.B. Jonde, unpubl.). A comparison of haplogroup-M haplotypes from East Africa and India has suggested that this southern route may have been one of the original dispersal pathways of anatomically modern humans out of Africa (Quintana-Murci et al. 1999a). Together, these data support our previous suggestion (Kivisild et al. 1999) that India may have been inhabited by at least two successive late Pleistocene migrations, consistent with the hypothesis of Lahr and Foley (1994). It also adds to the growing evidence that the subcontinent of India has been a major corridor for the migration of people between Africa, Western Asia, and Southeast Asia (Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994).

It should be emphasized that the DNA variation studied here is thought to be selectively neutral and thus represents only the effects of population history. These results permit no inferences about phenotypic differences between populations. In addition, alleles and haplotypes are shared by different caste populations, reflecting a shared history. Indeed, these findings underscore the longstanding appreciation that the distribution of genetic polymorphisms in India is highly complex. Further investigation of the spread of anatomically modern humans throughout South Asia will need to consider that such complex patterns may be the norm rather than the exception.

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METHODS

Sample Collection

All studies of South Indian populations were performed with the approval of the Institutional Review Board of the University of Utah, Andhra University, and the government of India. Adult males living in the district of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, were questioned about their caste affiliations and surnames and the birthplaces of their parents. Those who were unrelated to any other subject by at least three generations were considered eligible to participate.

We classified caste populations based upon the traditional ranking of these castes by varna (defined below), occupation, and socioeconomic status. According to various Sanskrit texts, Hindu populations were partitioned originally into four categories orvarna: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vysya, and Sudra (Tambia 1973;Elder 1996). Those in each varna performed occupations assigned to their category. Brahmins were priests; Kshatriya were warriors; Vysya were traders; and Sudra were to serve the three othervarna (Tambia 1973; Elder 1996). Each varna was assigned a status; Brahmin, Kshatriya, and Vysya were considered of higher status than the Sudra because the Brahmin, Kshatriya, and Vysya are considered the twice-born castes and are differentiated from all other castes in the caste hierarchy. This is the rationale behind classifying them as the upper group of castes (Tambia 1973).

The Kapu and the Yadava are called once-born castes that have traditionally been classified in the Sudra, the lowest of the original four varna. However, the status of the Sudra was actually higher than that of a fifth varna, the Panchama. This fifthvarna was added at a later date to include the so-called untouchables, who were excluded from the other four varna(Elder 1996). The untouchable varna includes the Mala and Madiga. The position of the Relli in the caste hierarchy is somewhat ambiguous, but they have usually been classified in the lower caste group. Therefore, prior to the collection of any data, males from eight different Telugu-speaking castes (n = 265) were ranked into upper (Niyogi and Vydiki Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vysya [n = 80]), middle (Telega and Turpu Kapu, Yadava [n = 111]), and lower (Relli, Madiga, Mala [n = 74]) groups (Bamshad et al. 1998). This ranking has been used by previous investigators (Krishnan and Reddy 1994).

After obtaining informed consent, ∼8 mL of whole blood or 5 plucked scalp hairs were collected from each participant. Extractions were performed at Andhra University using established methods (Bell et al. 1981).

MtDNA Polymorphisms

The mtDNA data consisted of 68, 116, and 73 HVR1 sequences and 79, 159, and 72 restriction-site haplotypes from largely the same individuals in upper, middle, and lower castes, respectively. These data were compared to data from 143 Africans (15 Sotho-Tswana, 7 Tsonga, 14 Nguni, 24 San, 5 Biaka Pygmies, 33 Mbuti Pygmies, 9 Alur, 18 Hema, and 18 Nande), 78 Asians (12 Cambodians, 17 Chinese, 19 Japanese, 6 Malay, 9 Vietnamese, 2 Koreans, and 13 Asians of mixed ancestry), and 99 Europeans (20 unrelated males of the French CEPH kindreds, 69 unrelated Utah males of Northern European descent, and 10 Poles) (Jorde et al. 1995, 1997). Mitochondrial sequence data from these 597 individuals are available at: http://www.genome.org/supplemental/.

In addition to our samples, the phylogenetic analyses also included data from 98 published HVR1 sequences from two castes (48 Havlik and 43 Mukri), and a tribal population (7 Kadar) living in south-western India (Mountain et al. 1995) and restriction-site haplotypes from one caste (62 Lobana) from Northern India, three tribal populations from Northern (12 Tharu and 18 Bhoksa) and Southern (86 Lambadi) India, and 122 individuals from various caste populations in Uttar Pradesh (Kivisild et al. 1999). Phylogenetic relationships of HVR1 sequences assigned to haplogroup M were estimated for Indians (this study), Turks (this study), Central Asian populations (Comas et al. 1998), Mongolians (Kolman et al. 1996), Chinese (Horai et al. 1996), and Japanese (Horai et al. 1996; Seo et al. 1998).

The mtDNA HVR1 sequence was determined by fluorescent Sanger sequencing using a Dye terminator cycle sequencing kit (Applied Biosystems) according to the manufacturer’s specifications (Bamshad et al. 1998). Sequencing reactions were resolved on an ABI 377 automated DNA sequencer, and sequence data were analyzed using ABI DNA analysis software and SEQUENCHER software (Genecodes). To identify mtDNA haplotypes and haplogroups (a group of haplotypes that share some sequence variants), major continent-specific genotypes (Torroni et al. 1994, 1996; Wallace 1995) for the following polymorphic mtDNA restriction sites were determined: HpaI₃₅₉₂,DdeI₁₀₃₉₄, AluI₁₀₃₉₇,AluI₁₃₂₆₂, BamHI₁₃₃₆₆,AluI₅₁₇₆, HaeIII₄₈₃₀,AluI₇₀₂₅, HinfI₁₂₃₀₈,AccI₁₄₄₆₅, AvaII₈₂₄₉,AluI₁₀₀₃₂, BstOI₁₃₇₀₄, andHaeII₉₀₅₂.

Y-Chromosome and Autosomal Polymorphisms

Y-chromosome-specific STRs (DYS19, DYS288, DYS388, DYS389A, DYS390) were amplified using published conditions (Hammer et al. 1998). PCR products were separated on an ABI 377 automated sequencer and scored using ABI Genotyper software. Y-chromosome STR data were collected from 622 males including 280 South Indians, ∼200 Africans (Seielstad et al. 1999; this study), 40 Asians, and 102 Europeans. Autosomal data were collected from 608 individuals including 265 South Indians, 155 Africans, 70 Asians, and 118 Europeans.

The Y-chromosome-specific biallelic polymorphisms tested included: DYS188₇₉₂, DYS194₄₆₉, DYS211₁₀₅, DYS221₁₃₆, DYS257₁₀₈, DYS287, M3, M4, M9, M12, M15, SRY₄₀₆₄, SRY_10831.1, SRY_10831.2, p12f2, PN1, PN2, PN3, RPS4Y₇₁₁, and Tat (Hammer and Horai 1995;Hammer et al. 1997, 1998, 2000; Underhill et al. 1997; Zerjal et al. 1997; Karafet et al. 1999). All individuals tested negative for the YAlu insert (DYS287). A complete description of the Y-chromosome STR loci can be found in Kayser et al. (1997). A table of the biallelic Y-chromosome haplotype frequencies in the upper, middle, and lower castes is available at http://www.genome.org/supplemental/.

For the Y-chromosome biallelic dataset, comparisons were made to a different set of worldwide populations including: East Asians from Japan, Korea, China, and Vietnam (n = 460); Western Europeans from Britain and Germany (n = 77); Southern Europeans from Italy and Greece (n = 148); and Eastern Europeans from Russia and Romania (n = 102) (M.F. Hammer, unpubl.). The complete dataset of Indians consisted of 55 Brahmin, 111 Yadava and Kapu, and 74 Relli, Mala, and Madiga.

Autosomal polymorphisms were amplified using conditions specifically optimized for each system. Further information on these conditions is available at the Web site:http://www.genetics.utah.edu/∼swatkins/pub/Alu_data.htm orhttp://www.genome.org/supplemental. With minor exceptions caused by typing failures or other causes, the same individuals from each population were used to create each dataset (i.e., mtDNA, Y chromosome, and autosomal). The complete dataset of genotypes from all 40 autosomal loci is available at: http://www.genome.org/supplemental/.

Statistical Analyses

Genetic distances for Y-chromosome STRs were estimated using the method of Shriver et al. (1995), which assumes a stepwise mutation model. Genetic distances for mitochondrial and autosomal markers were calculated as pairwise F _ST distances, using theARLEQUIN package (Schneider et al. 1997). For autosomal polymorphisms, Nei’s standard distances and their standard errors were estimated using DISPAN (http://www.bio.psu.edu/IMEG); and 90% confidence intervals were estimated by multiplying the standard error by 1.65. The significance of the F _ST distances between populations was estimated by generating a null distribution of pairwise F _ST distances by permuting haplotypes between populations. The p-value of the test is the proportion of permutations leading to an F _ST value larger than or equal to the observed one. Genotypic differentiation was estimated using GENEPOP (Raymond and Rousset 1995) vers. 3.2 (http://www.cefe.cnrs-mop.fr/). The null hypothesis tested is that there is a random distribution of K different haplotypes amongr populations (the contingency table). All potential states of the contingency table are explored with a Markov chain, and the probability of observing a table less than or equally likely to the observed sample configuration is estimated.

Estimates of significance for the correlation between interindividual caste rank differences and interindividual autosomal genetic distances were made by forming two n × n matrices, wheren is the number of individuals. For the first matrix, interindividual genetic distances were based on the proportion ofAlu insertions/deletions shared by each pair of individuals. To form the second matrix, each individual was assigned a score according to his rank in the caste hierarchy for caste groups (i.e., upper caste = 1, middle caste = 2, lower caste = 3) and also for separate castes (i.e., Brahmin = 1, Kshatriya = 2, Vysya = 3, Kapu = 4, Yadava = 5, Relli = 6, Mala = 7, and Madiga = 8). An interindividual matrix of score distances was formed by comparing the absolute value of the difference between the scores of each pair of individuals. The matrix of genetic distances was compared to 10,000 permuted matrices of score distances using a Mantel matrix comparison test (Mantel 1967).

To illustrate phylogenetic relationships we constructed reduced median (Bandelt et al. 1995) and neighbor-joining networks (Felsenstein 1989). Coalescence times were calculated as in Forster et al. (1996), using the estimator ρ, which is the average transitional distance from the founder haplotype.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all participants, the faculty and staff of Andhra University for their discussion and technical assistance, as well as Henry Harpending for comments and criticisms. We acknowledge the contributions of an anonymous reviewer who suggested that the Kshatriya and Vysya be analyzed separately from the other upper castes. Genetic distances between STRs were estimated by the programDISTNEW, kindly provided by L. Jin. This work was supported by NSF SBR-9514733, SBR-9700729, SBR-9818215, NIH grants GM-59290 and PHS MO1–00064, the Estonian Science Fund (1669 and 2887), and the Newcastle University small grants committee.

The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

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Footnotes

Present addresses: ¹⁰Eccles Institute of Human Genetics, 15 North 2030 East, Room 2100, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-5330, USA. ¹¹Department of Biological Sciences, Biological Computation and Visualization Center, Louisiana State University, 508 Life Sciences Building, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
↵12 Corresponding author.
E-MAIL mike@genetics.utah.edu; FAX (801) 585-9148.
Article published on-line before print: Genome Res., 10.1101/gr.173301.
Article and publication are at www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.173301.
- Received November 29, 2000.
- Accepted March 22, 2001.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

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Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Populations

Abstract

RESULTS

Analysis of mtDNA Suggests a Proto-Asian Origin of Indians

Y-Chromosome Variation Confirms Indo-European Admixture

Affinities to Europeans and Asians Stratified by Caste Rank

DISCUSSION

METHODS

Sample Collection

MtDNA Polymorphisms

Y-Chromosome and Autosomal Polymorphisms

Statistical Analyses

Acknowledgments

Footnotes

REFERENCES

Articles citing this article