No beef-burgers please, We are Indians

Food, faith and politics

JOHN DAYAL

“Congratulations Maharashtra: It is now safer to be cow than a woman, Dalit or Muslim in the state”, a Tweet by anonymous but popular commentator @RushieExplains went viral on social media when the President of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, signed into law a twenty-year old legislation banning the slaughter of cows, bulls bullocks in that state, making it the 23^rd state to criminalize the production or eating of beef and beef products, in fact the possession of the meat, a serious offence inciting a five year prison term. The irony was because the current punishments under Indian law 2 years for drunken driving, the sort indulged in by film stars and billionaires, 2 years for manslaughter, three years for theft, 5 years for cow slaughter, 7 years for conversions by priests, specially if involving Tribals and Dalits to Christianity. Indian law has no punishment for marital rape.

The cow as the holy animal of Hindus has always been a disputed belief. Prof D N Jha in his book 'The Myth of the Holy Cow' explains this misrepresentation of cow's holiness. Rigveda has references of cow being one of the most commonly consumed food item among the Brahmins. The practice of cow slaughter was an integral part of the Aryan cult. Jha writes cow and bull meat was one of the favourite delicacies of the Hindu deity Indra. Swami Vivekananda, whose name is now a chant in the corridors of power said: ‘You will be astonished if I tell you that, according to old ceremonials, he is not a good Hindu who does not eat beef. On certain occasions he must sacrifice a bull and eat it.’ [Vivekananda speaking at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, USA (2 February 1900) on the theme of ‘Buddhist India’, cited in Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol 3, (Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, 1997), p. 536].  Further research sponsored by the Ramakrishna Mission established that “Vedic Aryans, including the Brahmanas, ate fish, meat and even beef. A distinguished guest was honoured with beef served at a meal. Although the Vedic Aryans ate beef, milch cows were not killed. [C. Kunhan Raja, ‘Vedic Culture’, cited in the series, Suniti Kumar Chatterji and others (eds.), The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol 1 (Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission, 1993), p. 217].

Not many Indians, even if they are non-vegetarians, can really afford meat of any kind in the manner that it is consumed in the rest of the world where the flesh of animals, birds or fish is the main staple, and  starch, grain or potato, and vegetables the accompaniment. In South Asia, the starch is the staple, and the protein  whether flesh or from pulses, the  condiment to make it palatable or moist. This has to do  with the purchasing capacity of the people, rather than any dietary preferences. And unlike the West where prime cuts of quality  beef can be really expensive,  the meat of the buffalo, the  old and exhausted cow and bulls and bullocks of no further use to the farmer or tradesman are butchered, is about the cheapest protein consumed by religions and ethnic minorities and the Dalits. But even then, the consumption figures are low.

The decision to curtail or ban the meat of the cow, then, is a matter not so much of faith, or economics, as of practical politics, even though the governments  claim that bovines enrich the soil and the environment by helping farmers on synthetic fertilizers. The argument is easily countered by critics who point out that marginal farmers can hardly afford to take care of cattle no longer useful as milch or draught animals who then are turned out to die miserably of starvation.

The Congress was the first to poeticize the cow, so to say, and Mahatma Gandhi and his peers in the early 20^th century used it to full measure. It would be remembered that the electoral symbol of the cow for years was a pair of bullocks under yoke, succeeded later by a cow and calf. The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has hijacked the iconography and the political symbolism. The general elections, and the elections to the state assemblies, some of which the BJP won, culminated in the humiliating drubbing in the Delhi polls. The one cheerful strain through the last  year has been the fact that the core vote share of the BJP has remained at just over 30 percent, or a third of the voting public. It is this core that the BJP has to preserve as it cobbles coalitions and economic arguments to win in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. It desperately needs to win big in these two mammoth states which send a good number of members to the Rajya Sabha where the BJP government is in a minority and has been defeated on the Vote of Thanks to the Address of the President. With UP and Bihar in its fold, it can in the next two years get a majority in the two houses of Parliament and be able to enact ay law it wants to. The emotional appeal of the cow will be very useful, even if the misogynist statements of some RSS luminaries put off a section of the people now supporting the party.

On Nuns and Priests

The Challenge is in the soil of India

JOHN DAYAL

 Nine years ago, in 2006, I wrote a Public Note, by way to a statement to the media and to the law leadership in India when the Bar Council of India moved the Supreme Court of India, opposing the admission of Catholic consecrated women and men practicing as lawyers in various courts of law. As many others, among them Hindu and Muslim jurists, I too was shocked at the  approach and perhaps even implied bigotry in that organisation managing the professional aspects of  lawyering.  The matter had been adequately settled in the Bombay High Court many years ago when it upheld the marked difference between the vocation of a priest and a nun and their specialized secular profession.  The matter was later upheld once again in the Kerala High Court.

I asked :“If the Bar Council feels it still needs to agitate the matter in the highest court of the land, it will have to explain itself to the common man. What does it oppose – the entry of highly committed rand deeply religious activists with a social conscience seeking legal redress for the common man, the poor and the marginalized, demanding equity in law, and providing a voice to the meek? Is it opposed to low cost and free legal aid available to gender victims, to Dalits and the starving. Does it not like commitment and excellence?

“Theologically and under legal definitions, the vocation of a religious is very different from his or her professional career. A priest or nun, after years of theological, philosophical and spiritual training – apart from secular studies – makes a commitment, even a covenant, with God to serve his people to the end of their lives, making sacrifices most humans would not. Many of these priests serve in parishes in religious duties. Many others train as teachers, social workers, doctors, scientists, and even motor mechanics and serve their local brothers and sisters. If the Bar Council is making a difference between professionals – the Advocate Act bars even law degree holders in a full time job in industry or education from practicing in courts – it needs to remembered that when nuns and priests are employed in the university or hospitals,  they get full salaries as given to their secular colleagues. It is another matter that most of them deposit this salary with their congregations.  Therefore nuns and priests are not employees of a church organisation or of a bishop or superior. Nuns and priests, who are lawyers, whether in Mumbai, Allahabad, Lucknow, Calcutta or Delhi, have done a tremendous job in legal aid and civil society. This I can vouch for by my personal and long experience in long years or working with them. They must be accepted as lawyers and allowed to practice in court in the defence of the poor.”

I have not always been a practicing Catholic, spending  as an avowedly Left-wing writer and activist almost my entire youth and two thirds of my professional life as an investigating journalist, Editor and documentary film maker reporting on political, economic and development issues relating to farmers, labour, religious minorities, Tribals, Dalits and others forced to live on the margins of government and public consciousness in  the country, and other parts of the world.  This is an ideological battleground, and those witnessing it cannot remain untouched with the hidden and open violence against the poor and the weak, with the state complicit, and impunity rampant. This also gave me an opportunity to see the rawness of life at the grassroots, the victimization, and the terror.  It also helped understand the political economy, and the  lack of social interventions by civil society. Above all, it helped me see the nexus, collaboration and conspiracy between big capital, politicians, the bureaucracy and the criminal justice apparatus --  block level judicial officers all the way to the high courts and the   capricious lawyers – as it operates in real life.

The Church -- Catholic, protestant, evangelical, Pentecost -- was among the few organisations present at the grassroots, sometimes even where  the government instruments and personnel were absent,  such as in health and education,  and there was no civil society, no Non-Governmental Organisations, and in the early years, not a single  member of  any of the Sangh Parivar organisations. It was not that the church presence was always useful. Sometimes it was just one person, and while he or she could take a ill person to the nearest dispensary, there was little else  that was done, other than perhaps a basic evangelisation, and that too not in a  very enlightened manner. And sometimes, the church presence became just another part of the  formal structures, the church personnel doing the bidding of the local political and administrative bosses. In effect, they became little more than service providers.

But even in the 1970s in my travels in areas that were forested, or were populated by Tribals and Dalits, as they are now generally known, I would meet Catholic consecrated men – I would much rather call them Brothers, Religious Sisters or Nuns and Fathers – working deep in the hinterland, in the areas inhabited by the poorest of the poor.

And they were often working in politically and physically hostile areas long before the hoodlums of the Sangh Parivar sought to make these areas more inhospitable to anyone who challenged their divisive and hate-filled ideology. Even during the terrible days of the Emergency imposed by the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi during 1975-1977, when  all voices were stifled and police and bureaucracy ruled as petty dictators in some banana republic, there were men and women  brining solace to the victims, if bit actually challenging the czars of the ruling structure. I do not know if any priest or Nun was arrested by the police those days. Perhaps not, but many surely would have been warned off, and told to stop their activities.

Many years later, I had another cathartic, even shattering experience that confirmed my oft-articulated  sentiment that  Catholic Nuns are ordinary women challenged to do extraordinary deeds, that they voluntarily identify themselves entirely with the fate of the poor and marginalised who are at risk of life, liberty or dignity. Some of these religious women for this with their lives. This was my visit to the small hut that Sister Valsa John of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary called home in a distant village in Pachaura, In Pakur in Dumka district of Jharkhand, and where she was brutally murdered in late at night on Tuesday, 15th November 2011. She had been attacked by a group of about 45 men armed with swords, axes and other weapons. Her head was nearly severed from her body. Some Maoist literature and a spade were left behind. The immediate suspicion was that she was killed for she had taken sides with the local Tribals in their long standing confrontation with the corporate sector mining the area for coal. Years later, the suspicions of a conspiracy remain in the public mind, and in mine.

Valsa’s death, the impunity of the state, has made me ask many questions of myself, the laity, other religious, and of course  of the Church hierarchy Why are these people honoured, often  in a token gesture, after their death by violence or  in God’s own time of old age, but never celebrated when they are alive, and why is their work  never really acknowledged unless it is in their role  as principals and teachers of popular “convent” schools and colleges in metropolitan cities. Above all, where would be the Catholic church in particular, but without its consecrated people, followed by the next question why despite a couple of hundred thousand trained and untrained pastors and bible teacher, the protestant and independent churches have not been able to get trained and committed people who are not mere employees, but the very soul of the social and evangelistic outreach of the faith.

The future of the Church in general, and its evangelistic and social outreach, beyond the homilies and the rituals, depends on its consecrated personnel. Of that there is no doubt in my mind. The Lay component of the church does not lack the zeal, nor the divine calling, to be use and help to his of her fellow human beings. Their limited potential of  this intervention despite their more intrinsic “dialogue of life”  with people of other religions and  social identities in the neighbourhood, is because of the nature of the  church in India and the demographic and economic, social and caste compulsions of the people. The membership of the church is largely Dalit, Tribal,  peasantry and what can be called the lower economic strata, or at best the lower middle class. There are very few people who can really be counted as economically well off, or rich, despite the high visibility of  some tokens of wealth, specially jewelry and large houses on small plots of land, that one gets to see on the western coast of India or in some urban pockets. The  issues of living an every day life of survival, trying to eke out a livelihood in an economically hostile ecology looms large on the common Christian. Add to it the vagaries of development in the areas which much of the Christian community lives in, the forested rural hinterland of central India, the plateau of south India, the Dalit hamlets and the mission compounds of north Indian states, there is little surprise that Christian youth find themselves sucked early into the rat race, with no tine to  cater to their evolving social consciousness. Outside Kerala, perhaps, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland, the Christian presence in trade unions, political parties and other mass organisations in small, and often all but non existent.

This in many ways also shows itself in the lack of political training, if not illiteracy, in the community, despite the thesis that those in some southern and north eastern states play an important role in the political processes of their regions. This is largely because they have  large concentrations of populations in limited areas or pockets. This stratification may give them  an enviable presence in the electoral politics of their districts, but still keeps them far away from influencing the national political discourse.

This political emasculation, if one can so definite it, makes the community very helpless in a  rapidly changing political and economic discourse which is marked by extremely right wing, casteist and communal political on the one hand and a development model propounded not just by the Bharatiya Janata party and the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, but also by regional parties which govern various states specially those rich in natural resources such as Orissa. The recent legislative “economic reforms” that the government has brought in, many of them through ordinances as they could go through the Rajya Sabha where the BJP still does not have a majority of the vote,  make it easy for government to transfer tribal and forest lands for industry, risking not just the life and livelihood of the common people but the security if a very fragile ecology and a rapidly depleting forest cover. The only beneficiaries are crony capitalism.

Some would argue that even more critical predation is that of the mind, specially of the very young. The secular and tolerant fabric of society is sought to be changed by that old fascist trick of indoctrination of the pliant psyche and intellect, catching them young, so to speak.

The fact that the Sangh Parivar runs over 57,000 ideology based schools for children in villages across several states, and specially in areas populated by Tribals and the Dalits, groups once called Untoucbable, makes available a cadre of youth and their parents ready to do their bidding in unraveling the secular heritage of the country’s freedom struggle. The stage is being set for this. The government’s senior minister, Mr. Venkiah Naidu, a former president of the BJP, has called for a national law against religious conversions. These laws exist in six states, and have been passed by two more states but yet made cleared by the Governors. It is a matter of a few months before they too are brought into force. These laws have also led to some considerable violence against religious groups in the years they have been in force. United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteurs for Religious Freedom have slammed these laws as infringing the basic rights of freedom of faith and belief, enunciated in the UN bill of Rights, and in fact, an important part of the Indian Constitution.

Other ministers have suggested an immediate enactment of a Common Civil Code, seemingly a good thing, but rooted in the unsubstantiated premise that Muslims can marry four wives at a time, are breeding too fast, and will outnumber the Hindus soon. The law will also impact on Christian personal laws and customs, particularly in rural populations where tradition and custom are the glue that holds their society together.

Mr. Modi’s minister for education, the former TV actor Mrs. Smriti Boman Irani, who has ordered a revision of text books, particularly of history, to incorporate more of ancient Indian traditions including references of Hindu sacred texts. Various important councils in the ministry are now chaired by luminaries wedded to the thesis that India is the fountainhead of all knowledge in the world. The BJP and the Minister hold Hindu sacred texts are the 5,000-year-old source of knowledge on such diverse subjects as plastic surgery, aviation, nuclear weaponry and genetic engineering. 

How are these to be questioned, and the trends reversed?  The church no longer runs the most educational institutions in the country,  with the RSS, the corporate sector, and the government which too is now almost entirely in control of the Sangh ideology have collectively overwhelmed whatever were the values that the Catholic and protestant schools sought to teach for almost a century and a half through much of the landmass, reaching deep into remote areas.

This massive education system, and the growing population of the rural and urban marginalised, therefore pose a tremendous, even an exciting, challenge to the church in general, and in particular to its fighting arm, the consecrated men and women. It remains to be seen if they will rise to the occasion as they have done in the past in the pioneering tradition of Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Mother Euphrasia. There is the other nagging question if the lay community will be able to continue to give of its sons and daughters to the church in terms of local vocation. The focal points of such calling have always changed with the times, and new areas have emerged to help change the ethnic profile, but not the strength of character and tempo, of  those who seek a future in the service of the church and the people.

The growth of the church in India, and its ability to help change the welfare and human rights discourse in India to the advantage of the common people, is, I feel confident, safe in the hands of these brave and committed men and women.

Hindu political groups set 2021 target to rid India of Christians and Muslim; the world must take notice

 The government encourages them with call for national laws against religious conversions

JOHN DAYAL

On 18^th December 2014, which is the official National Minorities Day, Mr.  Rajeshwar Singh, the head of the Dharm Jagran Manch [Faith awakening forum] declared on national television news channels that the Manch had set a 2021 deadline to cleanse India of  the “alien Islam and Christianity”. Another group said Christians would not be allowed in the Himalayan regions, sacred to the Hindus. The hate speeches went viral on social media, and then in the major newspapers across the country.

The Indian government of Mr. Narendra Modi, has so far not indicated if Mr. Rajeshwar Singh is being prosecuted under India’s strict laws against religious discord, used so far largely to target Christian pastors,  and in recent months, Muslim  youth active on Face Book who vent their anger against the State.

But members of Mr. Modi’s Council of Ministers, and official spokesmen of the Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, which controls much of the Indian provincial governments, have been voluble in support of the Sangh Parivar. The Parivar is a very large and almost omni-present family of Hindu militant organisations created by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh in the past two decades, of which the Dharma Jagran Manch, the Bajrang Dal and the  powerful Vishwa Hindu Parishad are among the more prominent  groups with aggressive cadres.

Political analysts have said it would be erroneous to assume that under the government of Mr. Modi, the RSS has reoriented its goals. Each time the BJP assumes power, its ideologues get emboldened. Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee was in power in New Delhi when major attacks took place on Christians. Over 30 village churches were destroyed in Dangs in Gujarat on Christmas Eve in 1998. Australian leprosy worker Graham Staines and his sons were burnt alive  in January 1999, and of a Catholic priest Fr George Kuzhikandam in Mathura, not too far from New Delhi, as he lay asleep in his church in June 2000. Christmas eve violence in 2007 in Kandhamal, Orissa, was a precursor of the 2008 pogrom, was when the BJP was in power in coalition government. Mr. Modi has made no bones of the fact that he was a leader of the RSS, and continues to profess its ideology.

RSS affiliated groups have launched a campaign to convert the poorer Christians and Muslims to Hinduism, a process they call Ghar Wapsi, or home coming under their argument that every Indian is actually a Hindu, and Christians and Muslims are those who have strayed, or have been bought over by missionaries. In turn, the Sangh groups have called for a war chest for the Ghar Wapsi, earmarking Rupees 500,000 for every Muslim they convert, and Rupees 200,000 for every Christian. The different rates are presumably because Muslims are felt to be more difficult to “persuade’ for a change of faith.

In the central Indian State of Chhattisgarh, where some months ago radical groups enacted villages banning the entry of essentially Christian pastors and religious services other than those of the Hindus, the focus is now on Catholic Schools. In its Bastar Tribal region, Christian schools, which are otherwise in great demand, need to install statues of the Hindu goddess of learning, Saraswati. And priests running these institutions can no longer be called “father’, but need to be called “Pracharya”, a teacher. Protestant pastors are now beaten up, home churches raided almost as a matter of routine, with the police looking on, or an active participant. Santa Claus, of course, has been proscribed. Needless to say, the State has been governed by the BJP for the past 12 years.

The fact that the Sangh Parivar runs over 57,000 ideology based schools for children in villages across several states, and specially in areas populated by Tribals and the Dalits, groups once called Untoucbable, makes available a cadre of youth and their parents ready to do their bidding.

The BJP’s response has been to suggest that the religious cleansing deadline needs to be seen in the context of fiery speeches by Muslim TV evangelists and western campaigns to spread Christianity. The government’s senior minister, Mr. Venkiah Naidu, a former president of the BJP, has called for a national law against religious conversions. These laws exist in six states, and have been passed by two more states but yet made cleared by the Governors. It is a matter of a few months before they too are brought into force. These laws have also led to some considerable violence against religious groups in the years they have been in force.

United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteurs for Religious Freedom have slammed these laws as infringing the basic rights of freedom of faith and belief, enunciated in the UN bill of Rights, and in fact, an important part of the Indian Constitution.

Other ministers have suggested an immediate enactment of a Common Civil Code, seemingly a good thing, but rooted in the unsubstantiated premise that Muslims can marry four wives at a time, are breeding too fast, and will outnumber the Hindus soon. The law will also impact on Christian personal laws and customs, particularly in rural populations where tradition and custom are the glue that holds their society together.

Mr. Modi’s minister for education, the former TV actor Mrs. Smriti Boman Irani, who has ordered a revision of text books, particularly of history, to incorporate more of ancient Indian traditions including references of Hindu sacred texts. Various important councils in the ministry are now chaired by luminaries wedded to the thesis that India is the fountainhead of all knowledge in the world. The BJP and the Minister hold Hindu sacred texts are the 5,000-year-old source of knowledge on such diverse subjects as plastic surgery, aviation, nuclear weaponry and genetic engineering. 

Her officials passed orders earlier this month that Christmas Day will now be called “Good Governance Day” in honour of the birthday, not of Jesus, but of Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, the first BJP Prime Minister who ruled from 1998 to 2004, and is now critically ill and has not been seen in public for several years. Academic institutions from junior schools to Universities were keep their doors open and organise social programmes for the students, supervised by the teachers. Christmas was not to be a holiday any more.

An outcry by Church and Civil Society, an acrimonious clash in Parliament where Mr. Modi still does not have a majority in the Upper House, Rajya Sabha, forced the government to dilute its order. Christmas remains a Holiday, but the “educational” programmes of declamations and other activities will also be held, with Principals and officials told to report to the government that they did indeed comply with the order.

Muslims and Christians feel they are being encircled in a vicious and tightening noose,  in the villages and small towns by Sangh cadres who have the police on their side, and nationally by the Federal and State governments who seem to endorse the hate campaigns and the violence.

But for Civil society, the threat is to  the Constitution of India which ahs evolved as a great international democratic document that protects the subcontinent-sized country’s hundreds of cultures, languages, races and faith. All too many people in office and heading Sangh groups have  said  the Constitution is a British inheritance  that has no place in Hindu Rashtra, the Land of the Hindus.

This is something that must worry not just Indian religious minorities, but the world.

[UCAN]

INDIA’S RELIGIOUS MINORITIES AND THE UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW OF INDIA’S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD BY THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM

INDIA’S RELIGIOUS MINORITIES AND THE UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW OF INDIA’S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD BY THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM

Urgent communiqué from Dr John Dayal, All India Catholic Union, All India Christian Council and the United Christian Forum, New Delhi

January 28, 2008-01-29
Dear Friends

I am sending you a crucial segment of the note that the Indian National Human Rights Commission is reportedly preparing for the Universal Periodic Review of India – and some other countries -- by the United Nations Human Rights Council in April this year.

As far as religious minorities and Dalits go, the record of the NHRC is arguably at par with that of the various National Commissions for Minorities, Scheduled castes and Tribes [the last two were once a single entity and are now split into two]. These organisations have seldom been able to function other than as loyal entities of the Government of the day and its political agenda when it comes to Muslims and Christians, though their record on more general – and larger -- issues such as Police reforms, Torture, Hunger and Poverty is better. This was seen at its most raw when the Bharatiya Janata Party was ruling in the garb of the National Democratic Alliance, and which is still so very visible in State governments ruled by the BJP or its allies, and occasionally even by those where the Congress and others are in power. Without disparaging Indian civilisation traditions, the same passiveness or comparative unconcern, of course, could also be said of the justice delivery system, the criminal investigation system and of police and civil governance in general.

I am sending this material, which I understand is still in a draft form, so that concerned activists, who would otherwise not have access to the NHRC position, can mobilise themselves to persuade the Commission to take stock of issues of religious persecution, official and political bigotry and connivance, government harassment in cases of visas, FCRA, Hindutva violence and probity of the bureaucracy and political administration, as well as matters of impunity. Our experience in Orissa in December 2007-January 2008, and in other states earlier, shows us just how wide the gap is between ground reality and public positioning.

I hope you will be able to express your views on the actual grass roots non-implementation of enacted legislation and rules, as well as the perversion of other official regulations, to the NHRC as well as to the National Commissions for Minorities, Tribals and Scheduled Castes.. I need hardly point out that the Government and the Commissions have sent Muslim and Christian Dalits first into a merry go round of hope and then into a blind alley sealed by a Supreme Court ceiling of 50 per cent on all reservations in government employment and education systems. Most of us cannot fathom just why everyone believes this arbitrary ceiling is sacrosanct, and the deprivation of minority groups is not. Even between minorities, issues of the Christian community, including economic and political disempowerment, find little or no space.

I also understand that the voices of organisations on Freedom of faith and of those challenging persecution do not really find a commensurate place in this discourse towards the Universal Public Review of India’s record.

God bless

John Dayal

Quotation from the NHRC paper for UPR

“Persons belonging to Scheduled Castes and Tribals:

Persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have suffered historical injustices, and are hurting because of discrimination and inequality. They continue to face alleged acts of discrimination, untouchability, violence against the human person, atrocities of various kinds, and high-handedness by public servants and others. Caste-based discrimination constitutes an unacceptable assault on the dignity and worth of the human person and an egregious violation of human rights.

It was in recognition of this - and to end such injustice - that Part III of the Constitution of our Republic dealing with Fundamental Rights, contained powerful provisions to combat all forms of discrimination, notably those forms which were based on caste. These provisions of the Constitution, which are justiciable, include inter alia, equality before the law or the equal protection of laws, non discrimination against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward class of citizens as well as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, affirmative action through the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services of the State and abolition of “Untouchability”.

To give clear expression to Constitutional provisions, an impressive range of legislative measures have been enacted to end discrimination against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. These inter alia include the Protection of Civil Rights (Anti-Untouchability) Act, 1955, the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and various land reform acts. In accordance with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995, the Nodal Officers and Special Cells for Protection of Civil Rights have been appointed in many States/Union Territories. Political representation was guaranteed for Scheduled Castes and Tribes through the proportionate reservation of seats in elected legislative bodies, from Parliament to village councils. To overcome the cumulative results of past discrimination, the government instituted a program of “compensatory discrimination” that reserved 22.5 percent of all central government jobs for members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Comparable reservations were provided for state-level employment, and reservations were extended to college and university admissions.

Besides establishing a Focal Point on Scheduled Castes, the National Human Rights Commission made specific recommendations to address atrocities against Scheduled Castes and been has monitoring their implementation at field level.

India has embarked on a programme of affirmative action which is, perhaps, without parallel in scale and dimension in human history. However, it is recognised that much remains to be done to bring to an end the discrimination and inequality that have been practiced for centuries and that this requires both sustained effort and time. It requires change of mindsets. There are inadequacies in implementation which need to be addressed. Legislative and affirmative action programmes are firmly in place, but need to be far better implemented.

The provisions in the Constitution make it incumbent on the State to “take care” of Scheduled Tribes [STs]. In articles 15 and 16 (which refer to fundamental rights of citizens) exceptions are made to ensure that what is needed to be done for STs is done. For example, though equality of opportunity is the policy of the State, an exception is made for reservations. Article 244 enables the State to make special arrangements for development of STs. Article 275-1 enables the State (the central government particularly) to set aside financial provisions to be used for tribal development. If there are any schemes from the state government and the central government approves it then the central government is bound to finance the scheme. So we get all ingredients for the State in terms of the legality and financial arrangements. The State cannot have any excuse that they are not empowered enough. The V schedule is a unique aspect of the Constitution - it empowers the governor of a state to suspend any act of parliament or state legislature if he thinks it is not in the interest of the STs. This he can do even with retrospective effect. A similar aspect is not found anywhere else in the constitution. The VI schedule enables an autonomous district level body to be formed where there is a large percentage of tribal groups. This has been formulated especially for north-eastern region which is unique in many respects. Districts in the northeast can be mini-states - they have a lot of financial, legislative, executive, and judicial power. Education, health care, rural development, social security are all subjects under the State List of Schedule VII to the Constitution, the maturing of our federal systems has prompted the Centre to play an increasing role in these areas
When tribals are displaced by dams and other mega projects, as has happened in some States of the country, they raise important human rights issues. It is necessary to pay heed to the fate of those who pay the price for "development", whether through the undertaking of mega projects or as a result of economic policies that, advertently or otherwise, have the effect of marginalizing the most vulnerable sections of society.
The recognized rights of the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers include the responsibilities and authority for sustainable use, conservation of biodiversity and maintenance of ecological balance and thereby strengthening the conservation regime of the forests while ensuring livelihood and food security of the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers.

The forest rights on ancestral lands and their habitat were not adequately recognized in the consolidation of State forests during the colonial period as well as in independent India resulting in historical injustice to the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who are integral to the very survival and sustainability of the forest ecosystem.

To address the long standing insecurity of tenurial and access rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers including those who were forced to relocate their dwelling due to State development interventions, the Parliament enacted the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. It recognizes and vests the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded; it also seeks to provide for a framework for recording the forest rights so vested and the nature of evidence required for such recognition and vesting in respect of forest land. This Act received assent of the President on 29th December, 2006. On 1st January 2008, rules were notified for the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

The National Human Rights Commission intervened in a number of cases involving displacement of tribals. At the policy level, the Commission recommended that the Central and State Governments re-examine and appropriately amend their laws, regulations and practices in order to ensure that, when it comes to acquisition of land for purposes related to national economic development, the provisions of the Constitution, as expounded by the Supreme Court and as contained in international instruments to which India is a party, notably ILO Convention 107, are fully respected. This is essential if the 'national interest' was to be reconciled, as it can and should be, with true respect for the rights of the weakest sections of society.


Minorities:

The first Statutory National Commission for Minorities was set up on 17th May 1993. On 23rd October 1993 five religious communities viz. the Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) were notified as minority communities. As per the 2001 Census, these five religious minority communities constitute 18.42% of the country’s population. Despite the safeguards provided in the Constitution and the laws in force, there are concerns among members belonging to minorities about inequality and discrimination.

In order to address such concerns, the new Ministry of Minority Affairs was set up. The National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities and the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions have also been set up. The Government approved the proposal to grant Constitutional Status to the National Commission for Minorities to infuse greater confidence among the minorities about its working and the effectiveness. The Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for welfare of minorities covers (1) Enhancing opportunities for Education (2) Equitable Share in Economic Activities and Employment, (3). Improving the conditions of living of minorities (4). Prevention & Control of Communal Riots. It was also decided that 15% of the funds may be earmarked wherever possible in relevant schemes / programmes, for the nationally declared minorities. The 15 Point Programme has been recast to focus action sharply on issues intimately linked with the social, educational and economic uplift of minorities and provide for earmarking of outlays in certain schemes so that the progress is monitorable.

The Government approved relief and rehabilitation of victims of communal riots in Gujarat of 2002, on par with the measures taken in respect of victims of anti-Sikh riots of 1984. The Union Cabinet gave its approval for the enactment of Legislation titled “The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005.” This Bill is aimed at i) Prevention of communal violence / offences; ii) Speedy investigation; and speedy dispensation of justice; iii) Imposition of enhanced punishment on the persons involved in communal violence / offences; iv) Providing relief and rehabilitation facilities to the victims; v) Creating institutional arrangement for speedy investigation, disposal of cases, providing relief and rehabilitation to the victims. vi) Empowering the States / Central authorities to discharge their duties in assisting victims in the matter.

As there was lack of authentic information about the social, economic, and educational status of the Muslim community of India, a High Level Committee was constituted on 9th March, 2005 under the Chairmanship of Justice Rajinder Sachar to prepare a comprehensive report on this subject. After extensive consultations, the High Level Committee submitted its report on 17th November, 2006. The report made recommendations with regard to education, skill development, employment and economic opportunities, poverty and development and social conditions of Muslims. The Sachar Report on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India has produced a compendium of authentic information required by the Government for planning, formulating and implementing specific interventions, policies and programmes to address issues relating to the backwardness of the community. As a follow up action to the Sachar Committee Report, the Government proposes, among others, to take the following actions:

It has been decided in principle to set up an Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) to look into grievances regarding discrimination. An expert group will study and recommend its (EOC’s) structure and functions.

In order to promote diversity and social inclusion in educational institutions, work places and living spaces, an expert group has been constituted to propose an appropriate “diversity index”. Such an index can be the basis for providing incentives for better representation in all three areas mentioned above.

A National Data Bank (NDB) and an autonomous Assessment and Monitoring Authority (AMA) will be soon set up which will analyse the data so generated and suggest appropriate policies to Government on a continuous basis.
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