A lot on my mind is about the written world and untold stories of dalits. A lot more on what has and is written about the dalit woman. I recall Toni Morrison’s interview somewhere and this statement that stays with me always “i wrote for myself stories that i wanted to read”. The last week’s angst ridden talk and counter talk about what has and should be written about the dalit woman, meandering into some kind of mindlessness of ignoring the fact that all kinds of stories needs to be written in this gigantic vacuum. Doesn’t matter whether i sympathize with the broken unwanted or sexually exploited image of the dalit woman or end up romanticizing the image of a woman on whose knowledge, strength and stamina this country like Africa and any other agriculture based economy survives.  Or write about Dalit women in cities who take charge of ‘brahmanization’ of their families. This is the truth. And it needs to be told, if anyone has the capacity of understanding the reasons why she opts for and uses this strategy please lets us hear it without the need to condemn or hide from it. Our stories may have similarities with women from oppressed communities all over the world, if some one can draw on these parallels, wonderful! Our stories will be unique in the kind of negotiations that we make as aspects of caste society are unique to this world, we know this and one or some of us  may focus to dwell on these. Bottom line we need many stories. Lets write and hear them.

Leave you with two people who inspire me, listen to them to know why there is no need to worry about what image gets written, that it is written and that many more are written BY US is important:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the danger of a single story.

And Wole Soyinka on stories written by drawing from people and experience and not from previously read literature and styles, among other things:

Rise to learn and Act

Weak and oppressed! Rise my brother  

Come out of living in slavery.  

Manu-follower Peshwas are dead and gone

Manu’s the one who barred us from education.

Givers of knowledge –the English have come

Learn, you’ve had no chance in a millennium.

We’ll teach our children and ourselves to learn

Receive knowledge, become wise to discern.

An upsurge of jealousy in my soul

Crying out for knowledge to be whole.

This festering wound, mark of caste

I’ll blot out from my life at last.

In Baliraja’s kingdom, let’s beware

Our glorious mast, unfurl and flare.

Let all say, “Misery go and kingdom come!”

Awake, arise and educate

Smash traditions-liberate!

We’ll come together and learn

Policy-righteousness-religion.

Slumber not but blow the trumpet

O Brahman, dare not you upset.

Give a war cry, rise fast

Rise, to learn and act.

+++

Sunil Sardar and Victor Paul have translated this poem along with four other poems for a chapter in a lovely new book titled: A forgotten liberator: The life and struggles of Savitribai Phule. These poems were translated from M.G. Mali’s original marathi collection Savitribai Phule Samagra Wangmaya.

This book is a first of its kind in English on the social reformer and first woman teacher of India Savitribai Phule, by independent  authors.

Indian history is not just porous and one sided but is often a naked lie for and about the large majority of people who were once forbidden any formal education under the caste system. It would have us believe that this vast humanity produced no thoughts and actions worthy of mention in its pages. Occasionally stray strands do get woven into this brutally selective reading of the past like the 9th century Saint Nandanaar and 13th century Janabai. These are names that have escaped and appear in literature inadvertently; perhaps a rare occurrence of negligence in the maintenance of tightly clamped literary facilities. The hegemonic majority treats any acknowledgement of original, radical thoughts and actions emanating from the lower castes akin to radiation leaks. It has to be avoided at all costs and they use every single resource they command to do so. However, when such histories are far too powerful to fall into the usual traps of appropriation and co-option, they have the strategy of just saying and writing nothing about it. Stonily waiting for the collective memory to erase itself over generations.

In the last century a small group of people from within the lower castes have emerged to retell Indian history. This they do by finally claiming and owning the alphabet, taking us to the ones who made it possible; Savitribai Phule and her husband Jyotirao Phule, the visionary educators and social reformers. How cruel and effective a system we face, when this lady who in the mid-late 1800’s sought English as a liberating tool for the masses, only now in the year 2009  an independent well researched book on her life and achievements gets published in English!! This effort has been done by a group of dedicated scholars and researchers on their own steam. To the marginalized these efforts come as iridescent showers of enlightenment connecting us to the vibrant ancestors and their vision of an egalitarian society, their compassion and empathy rooting us firmly back to this soil. We stop feeling like ahistorical entities as we begin reading about the life and struggles of Savitribai Phule. A feeling of sudden awakening grips and removes the hovering disconnectedness for members of the oppressed communities, to whom she dedicated her life!

The startling strength and razor sharp intellect of this pioneer leader taking on society’s myriad evil and unquestioned practices of inequality among humans and between men and women is stunning in its forcefulness and sincerity. We receive this rare and fantastic effort of bringing out a book on Savitribai Phule like a sparkling oasis to quench the thirst of a million throats, charging us with fresh energy to continue on with her legacy.

I chose this poem of the five in this book as it brings us closer to the multifaceted personality of a reformer whose engaged poetry weaves her politics into her verses. In them one gets a glimpse of the mind of a woman completely dedicated to education of the downtrodden. Her impatience to see them empowered, her conviction that knowledge alone is the ingredient for salvation of people caught in unending cycles of servitude and destitution speaks volumes. Her revolutionary call to shake of the mantle of ignorance and fear of scriptures can be grasped only in the background of a time when her husband and she were ostracized from their family and home as they feared a backlash against the couple’s move to educate women and untouchables.

The undisputed place Savthribai Phule holds as the pioneer in women and human rights movements in India at a glance below:

=============

Source: A forgotten liberator: The life and struggles of Savthribai Phule. Page 66.

Edited by

Braj Ranjan Mani

Pamela Sardar. 

Update: A earlier NCERT book on the life of Savithribai Phule is also available.

(Talagang nakagigimbal  ang Maguindanao massacre na naganap  noong Nobyembre 23,  2009.  Kalunos-lunos ang sinapit  ng  limampu’t pitong taong walang awang  pinaslang.  Itong abang tula ay alay ko sa kanila at sa kanilang mga pamilya…)

Ang panaghoy ng damdamin

Mga buhay nang kitilin

Parang hayop ang kahambing.

Sila’y makabagong  Cain…

Panginoon, sana’y dinggin

Itong munting panalangin

Katarunga’y aming hiling

Salarin ay panagutin.

(Ang dalit ay isang katutubong anyo ng tula na binubuo ng walong pantig kada taludtod, apat na taludtod  kada  saknong at may isahang tugmaan.  Depinisyon mula sa http://www.english-to-tagalog.com/tula.html.)

This conversation here reminded me of this first post i had written, it is one of the posts that is most regularly read for some odd reason, readers use the tag ‘dark indian girl’ to reach here, i wonder about it sometimes .

Valli’s Beauty

Not the Tamil God’s tribal consort, but just someone known to me. Valli, husband and young son arrived in Bangalore as migrants. What they sought? What they got? Interesting line of inquiry, but, here, I want only to share few stories that I heard from Valli.

Valli did not land in the usual receptacles meant for poor villagers fleeing drought and other nasties, i.e, the sprawling slums of Bangalore city. Instead, she got housing within the grounds of a regal bungalow owned by an elite Anglo-Indian family, thanks to husband’s green fingers. He was hired as the resident gardener. Valli, got into the bungalow routine. Thus, knew the tea-making, serving and other genteel stuff.

Valli as I remember her then, was in her late thirties, around 5′2, very dark skinned, not the blotchy kind, but the uniform shade, with even facial features. She wore thick rimmed glasses, giving her the appearance of a stern professor with an exotic hairstyle. Wish I could draw, for describing that style is difficult. Hair was tucked in a way that had the ends of her tresses framed around her head in a fan shaped arrangement. Her gait was proud and erect. Her form was slender.

Death of the aging patrons, brought Valli and family to the slums. A reluctant Valli started as housemaid and baby sitter to families in the neighborhood. She gained the reputation of being a loyal but fastidious worker. In the meantime, the extended family from the village kept coming into the city, in a steady stream. As the drought did not go away, the elections always got over, with it, promises of better rural life, while other nasties just got nastier. Valli kept track of the in coming clan members, doing her best to keep the men from succumbing to alcohol, and women from prostitution.

Valli and husband, could never do enough for their only son. The story of her becoming a mother after many years of marriage, was recounted in great detail, every moment of motherhood was magnified for Valli. Poor eyesight had always plagued her. She would tear up while recalling near total blindness, for the first three years of her son’s life. The way she traced her baby’s features and kept him safe from danger, always transfixed her listeners. Herbal medicines and glasses helped her regain her sight to some extent.

When it was time to find a bride for the beloved son, Valli was teased by other women, where will you find the perfect girl? Are you going to find him a fair one? No, was the prompt reply. “Amman pola”, meaning dark like the village goddess, she said. She was dead serious and would explain in her clear voice, that in her community pale skinned girls were not sought after. Beauty is dark. Period.

Take home messages for me from Valli’s anecdotes came in handy at different points.

It took me a long time to realize that girls like me in School were not part of any cultural activities (read on-stage), not because we lacked grace in our movements, or articulation in our voices, but simply because we had little too much melanin. Did not do too much harm to my psyche, though (I am dark and thick skinned, I guess).

A sometime Sunday activity by girls in my hostel, was reading aloud the Hindu matrimonial ads, each girl would pick her community section and read it out, to the sneering rest. We concluded, here within the pages of Hindu matrimonial ads was the sign that Indians were indeed unified. No matter what caste, profession, age, or whatever, they all sought a FAIR girl.

As I follow arguments all over the world about objectifying women’s bodies and its effects, the manner in which Valli objectified, her would be daughter-in-law, always amuses me. For the sheer counterpoint it brings to the prevailing notion of a Nation obsessed with light skin. Then again, Valli spoke about her community, probably there are more Indians out there who are not terrified of the ‘pigment’. Just that their voices are not in all the noise that gets heard.

I “DALIT” A PIENO DIRITTO CITTADINI DEL BANGLADESH

SERGIO TARGA

Sergio Targa, missionario saveriano, originario di Castrezzato (BS), da anni lavora tra i Mandi nel Distretto di Mymensingh (Bangladesh)

Per noi missionari saveriani, il seminario è stato una specie di coronamento di uno sforzo più che quarantennale a fianco di queste popolazioni. Siamo orgogliosi che la nostra battaglia sia adesso la battaglia dei nostri giovani e amici…

Il 18 novembre si è tenuto a Dhaka un seminario nazionale dal titolo “I contorni della povertà dei dalit in Bangladesh”. Relatore principale è stato il dottor Mesbah Kamal del dipartimento di Storia dell’università di Dhaka. Ospite d’onore il dottor Kamal Hossain, giurista di fama internazionale ed estensore della Costituzione del Bangladesh. Fra gli invitati tante organizzazioni, operatori e attivisti che lavorano nel settore dei diritti umani in questo paese.

Il seminario è stato importante perché ha fatto uscire allo scoperto il problema della discriminazione di casta che esiste anche in Bangladesh, e da problema locale di particolari gruppi di persone, i cosiddetti fuori casta, esso è stato riconosciuto come un problema che riguarda tutta la nazione. Dalit è la parola di origine indiana comunemente usata per indicare globalmente tutte le caste basse, gli intoccabili.

Fra i punti salienti del seminario sono da menzionare le denunce del fatto che la discriminazione di casta non riguarda solo la popolazione hindu, ma anche quella musulmana; la proposta di sensibilizzare i partiti politici affinché nella nuova legislatura si possa varare una legge contro la discriminazione; la necessità di recuperare alla piena cittadinanza tutti i membri delle comunità dalit; l’urgenza di un intervento deciso da parte dello Stato a salvaguardia dei diritti umani e civili dei dalit.

Per i missionari saveriani il seminario è stato una specie di coronamento di uno sforzo più che quarantennale a fianco di queste popolazioni. Anche un confratelloha partecipato, su invito,ai lavori; ma la più grande soddisfazione è stata il vedere i giovani che sono stati formati dalla missione di Chuknagar farsi avanti, essere onorati e investiti di affetto e stima, riconosciuti nella loro battaglia di civiltà per l’affermazione della propria dignità umana e del proprio valore. Il seminario ha dato rilievo politico a un problema fino a ieri misconosciuto a livello sociale e, ancor più, politico. In Bangladesh molti ritenevano la discriminazione di casta la fantasia di un gruppetto di stranieri, accusati spesso di aver inventato un problema dove non c’era. I saveriani, infatti, sono riconosciuti come gli iniziatori del movimento di liberazione dei “rishi”, una delle caste appartenenti ai “dalit”. Ora però sono i nostri giovani che hanno preso la testa del movimento e si fanno onore come degni rappresentanti della società civile. Grande è stato l’orgoglio nel sentire continuamente nominati dai vari relatori, come esempi e come dalit leader da seguire e imitare, Milon Das e Dipali Das, due frutti dell’opera educativa-formativa di padre Luigi Paggi, il fondatore della missione di Chuknagar e gurudeb (guida spirituale) di entrambi. E grande la soddisfazione nel vedere che sono i nostri rishi la punta di diamante del movimento di liberazione dei dalit a livello nazionale. Parittran (in bengalese “salvezza” o “redenzione”), l’organizzazione non governativa fondata da Milon, è stata indicata nel seminario come organizzazione guida. Costituita nella sua quasi totalità da giovani rishi, Parittran è ormai conosciuta in molti ambienti della capitale per la sua intraprendenza, oltre che ad essere diventata punto di riferimento per i rishi delle zone di Satkhira e Monirampur, nel sud ovest del Bangladesh. La staffetta non è più in mano ai saveriani, ma siamo orgogliosi che la nostra battaglia sia adesso la battaglia dei nostri giovani e amici. Noi abbiamo fatto da guide per loro per tanti anni. Ora tocca a loro prendere in mano le redini della loro stessa liberazione. Sono loro il futuro del Bangladesh e soprattutto della comunità rishi. Ai saveriani spetta di continuare a essere loro compagni di viaggio, coloro che danno coraggio, che spingono a continuare nella battaglia per essere riconosciuti come uomini e cittadini al pari di altri. La lotta è ancora lunga, gli ostacoli molti e difficili da superare. Ma le basi sono solide per un cammino lungo e proficuo. Il seminario ha anche messo in risalto le innumerevoli differenze di pensiero e strategie fra i diversi gruppi dalit. Il cammino verso un movimento unitario è solo agli inizi. Ci vorranno anni prima di vedere frutti duraturi a livello di cambiamento nella società civile. I saveriani continueranno nella loro opera di sostegno, di incoraggiamento e di formazione. Anche questa è evangelizzazione.

SERGIO TARGA

Articoli riguardanti i Dalit

ANCHE QUESTA È EVANGELIZZAZIONE

I “DALIT” A PIENO DIRITTO CITTADINI DEL BANGLADESH

SERGIO TARGA

Sergio Targa, missionario saveriano, originario di Castrezzato (BS), da anni lavora tra i Mandi nel Distretto di Mymensingh (Bangladesh)

Per noi missionari saveriani, il seminario è stato una specie di coronamento di uno sforzo più che quarantennale a fianco di queste popolazioni. Siamo orgogliosi che la nostra battaglia sia adesso la battaglia dei nostri giovani e amici…

Il 18 novembre si è tenuto a Dhaka un seminario nazionale dal titolo “I contorni della povertà dei dalit in Bangladesh”. Relatore principale è stato il dottor Mesbah Kamal del dipartimento di Storia dell’università di Dhaka. Ospite d’onore il dottor Kamal Hossain, giurista di fama internazionale ed estensore della Costituzione del Bangladesh. Fra gli invitati tante organizzazioni, operatori e attivisti che lavorano nel settore dei diritti umani in questo paese.

Il seminario è stato importante perché ha fatto uscire allo scoperto il problema della discriminazione di casta che esiste anche in Bangladesh, e da problema locale di particolari gruppi di persone, i cosiddetti fuori casta, esso è stato riconosciuto come un problema che riguarda tutta la nazione. Dalit è la parola di origine indiana comunemente usata per indicare globalmente tutte le caste basse, gli intoccabili.

Fra i punti salienti del seminario sono da menzionare le denunce del fatto che la discriminazione di casta non riguarda solo la popolazione hindu, ma anche quella musulmana; la proposta di sensibilizzare i partiti politici affinché nella nuova legislatura si possa varare una legge contro la discriminazione; la necessità di recuperare alla piena cittadinanza tutti i membri delle comunità dalit; l’urgenza di un intervento deciso da parte dello Stato a salvaguardia dei diritti umani e civili dei dalit.

Per i missionari saveriani il seminario è stato una specie di coronamento di uno sforzo più che quarantennale a fianco di queste popolazioni. Anche un confratelloha partecipato, su invito,ai lavori; ma la più grande soddisfazione è stata il vedere i giovani che sono stati formati dalla missione di Chuknagar farsi avanti, essere onorati e investiti di affetto e stima, riconosciuti nella loro battaglia di civiltà per l’affermazione della propria dignità umana e del proprio valore. Il seminario ha dato rilievo politico a un problema fino a ieri misconosciuto a livello sociale e, ancor più, politico. In Bangladesh molti ritenevano la discriminazione di casta la fantasia di un gruppetto di stranieri, accusati spesso di aver inventato un problema dove non c’era. I saveriani, infatti, sono riconosciuti come gli iniziatori del movimento di liberazione dei “rishi”, una delle caste appartenenti ai “dalit”. Ora però sono i nostri giovani che hanno preso la testa del movimento e si fanno onore come degni rappresentanti della società civile. Grande è stato l’orgoglio nel sentire continuamente nominati dai vari relatori, come esempi e come dalit leader da seguire e imitare, Milon Das e Dipali Das, due frutti dell’opera educativa-formativa di padre Luigi Paggi, il fondatore della missione di Chuknagar e gurudeb (guida spirituale) di entrambi. E grande la soddisfazione nel vedere che sono i nostri rishi la punta di diamante del movimento di liberazione dei dalit a livello nazionale. Parittran (in bengalese “salvezza” o “redenzione”), l’organizzazione non governativa fondata da Milon, è stata indicata nel seminario come organizzazione guida. Costituita nella sua quasi totalità da giovani rishi, Parittran è ormai conosciuta in molti ambienti della capitale per la sua intraprendenza, oltre che ad essere diventata punto di riferimento per i rishi delle zone di Satkhira e Monirampur, nel sud ovest del Bangladesh. La staffetta non è più in mano ai saveriani, ma siamo orgogliosi che la nostra battaglia sia adesso la battaglia dei nostri giovani e amici. Noi abbiamo fatto da guide per loro per tanti anni. Ora tocca a loro prendere in mano le redini della loro stessa liberazione. Sono loro il futuro del Bangladesh e soprattutto della comunità rishi. Ai saveriani spetta di continuare a essere loro compagni di viaggio, coloro che danno coraggio, che spingono a continuare nella battaglia per essere riconosciuti come uomini e cittadini al pari di altri. La lotta è ancora lunga, gli ostacoli molti e difficili da superare. Ma le basi sono solide per un cammino lungo e proficuo. Il seminario ha anche messo in risalto le innumerevoli differenze di pensiero e strategie fra i diversi gruppi dalit. Il cammino verso un movimento unitario è solo agli inizi. Ci vorranno anni prima di vedere frutti duraturi a livello di cambiamento nella società civile. I saveriani continueranno nella loro opera di sostegno, di incoraggiamento e di formazione. Anche questa è evangelizzazione.

SERGIO TARGA

The dalit bangladesh official web page

ML Update

A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine

Vol.  12             No. 47                17 – 23 November 2009

By-election Blues: A Fading BJP, a Stunned SP and a Clueless CPI(M)

Close on the heels of the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh, we now have the results from by-elections to thirty-one assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat. The by-elections covered a large part of the Indian political spectrum: Left-ruled West Bengal and Kerala, BSP-ruled UP, BJP-ruled Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as well as Congress-ruled Assam and Rajasthan. Of the 31 seats, the Congress claimed ten, the BSP nine and the TMC seven. The rest were shared by the BJP, Forward Bloc and independents.

By-elections are often too limited in scale and scope to offer a really representative picture of the developing political scene in a state. But like the recent by-polls in Bihar, the scale of by-polls in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal too has been fairly large and the message too loud to be ignored. 

The UP results have been particularly stunning. Among the eleven Assembly seats that went for by-polls, the BSP got as many as nine, the Congress one and the remaining going to an independent candidate. The BJP and SP failed to retain any of their seats and drew a blank. The decline of the BJP in UP has indeed reached unprecedented proportions. The BJP lost even in Lucknow and whether in Ferozabad LS seat or the ten other Assembly seats that went for the by-poll, the BJP vote plummeted to merely a few thousands. The BJP’s loss has been gain for the Congress, which not only won the Ferozabad LS seat and the Lucknow West assembly seat but finished second in several other seats and significantly improved its votes in almost all seats.

The BJP’s decline and the revival of the Congress have cost the SP dear. The Ferozabad LS seat and many of the by-poll bound Assembly seats were traditional SP strongholds, yet the party failed to open its account. Clearly, with the BJP receding into the background, the SP has lost its pre-eminence as the leading ‘secular’ force in the state and in many areas the SP vote has suffered a two-way split benefiting the Congress as well as the BSP. The BSP has of course emerged as the biggest immediate beneficiary in the state, yet in the Ferozabad LS seat the BSP finished third. The relative gains made by the BSP in the regional context of UP politics must be reconciled with this larger picture of the party’s stagnation and decline nationally or in states like Haryana and Maharashtra where the party had seemed to be gaining ground in previous elections.

The results from West Bengal have not been unexpected in terms of direction, but the scale of TMC gains and the intensity of the CPI(M)’s rout must still have raised quite a few eyebrows. The LF had only three of the ten seats where by-polls were held, and so it may seem that the CPI(M) or LF did not have much stake in the by-polls. But there can be no mistaking the intensity of the anti-CPI(M) landslide. In the Rajganj Assembly segment under Jalpaiguri LS seat, the CPI(M) had led by 50,000 plus votes even in the recent LS election, but this time the CPI(M) lost this seat to TMC. In Kalchini (ST) segment under Alipurduar (ST) LS constituency, the RSP finished third while an independent candidate supported by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha bagged the seat.  

In the prestigious Belgachhia East by-election, where the seat had fallen vacant following the demise of CPI(M) stalwart Subhas Chakrabarty, the TMC candidate, a former lieutenant of Chakrabarty, wrested the seat by a margin of nearly 30,000 votes. The lone Left Front victory in these by-elections came from Goalpokhar in North Dinajpur district with the Forward Bloc regaining the seat at the expense of the Congress.

More than the margin of the CPI(M)/LF loss, the CPI(M) leadership must be feeling dejected by the fact that its ultimate tactical dream of weaning the Congress away from the TMC over the shared common plank of ‘responsible governance’ (read repressive collaboration) came a total cropper. Jyoti Basu’s appeal to traditional Congress voters to stand by the CPI(M) at West Bengal’s (read CPI(M)’s) hour of crisis just as the CPI(M) had stood by the Congress at the Centre fell on absolutely deaf ears. While the CPI(M) gropes for the next tactical straw on its capitulationist trajectory, it is now the TMC’s turn to expose itself as the new ‘oppositional’ ruler in West Bengal. As the Writers Building finally seems to be heading towards a change of guard, the battle for a real revival of the Left must begin in right earnest on the changing political turf of rural Bengal.

Preparations for Bihar Bandh on November 24

November 24 will mark the completion of four years of the Nitish Government. On that day, the CPI(ML) has called for a Bihar Bandh to highlight the all-round failure of the Nitish Government – on all fronts, be it the failure to implement of the recommendations of the Land Reforms Commission as well as the Common School Commission; to protect the poor from price hikes; to curb loot and corruption in NREGA, ration and other schemes; or industrial and agricultural development.

Towards the Bandh, the CPI(ML) has begun widespread mass contact drives from 10 November onwards, with senior party leaders leading more than 300 padyatra teams which are holding meetings, mass meetings, and distributing leaflets in villages in more than two dozen districts. Sharecroppers and landless labourers in particular have responded enthusiastically to this campaign.

At a Press Conference on 13 November, Party General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya released a booklet published by the party titled – ‘The Nitish Government and the Recommendations of the Land Reforms Commission headed by D Bandopadhyaya.’

Dalit Youth Shot Dead by Landed Criminals

in Punjab:

CPI(ML) Leads Protests 

On 4 October, a dalit youth Jeevan Singh (a brick-kiln worker) was shot dead in public by high caste Jatts for raising his voice against casteist humiliations by the latter in Chuhar Chakk village of Moga District, Punjab. Moga is part of the same Malwa region of Punjab where such atrocities against dalit labourers have grown – such as the assault on Bant Singh Jhabbar some years ago.

Jeevan Singh, 22, had dared to stop Jatts from playing vulgar and offensive songs on their tractor-stereo at loud volume when crossing in front of dalit homes. A gang of powerful Jatts who also enjoy political backing of the Akali Dal, and have often indulged in acts that terrorize dalit villagers with impunity (complaints to Police were not even registered in previous cases) took this assertion of dignity as a challenge to their feudal domination. Around 50 of them, armed with weapons, came on 25 bikes to his house to hunt him out; finding him at work, they left after threats to his life. The same evening, when he was in the market place, the criminals came up openly and shot him point blank and also shot at the crowd, injuring several including some children who were hurt by the shells of the bullets. 

On 6 October, CPI(ML) leaders from Mansa and Ludhiana Bhagwant Samao, Rajwinder Rana and Tarsem Jodhan visited the victim’s family. A fact finding team of RYA lead by Hasmeet Singh visited the victim’s family. On 10 October, CPI(ML) held a press conference in Chandigarh to highlight the issue. The press conference was addressed by the mother as well as the brother of the victim as well as Comrade Tarsem Jodhan, RYA Punjab President Kanwaljit and General Secretary Hasmeet Singh. Jeevan Singh’s mother Kuldeep Kaur demanded justice for her son, having rejected attempts to get her to “settle” the case by accepting land and cash.   

Police have arrested 3 of the accused but the main accused, the gang-leader ‘Dhanna’ is evading arrest due to his political connections with the ruling Akali Dal.

On 12 October, CPI(ML), Mazdoor Mukti Morcha, RYA and labourers of village held a dharna and gherao of Police Station Mehna, under which the village Chuhar Chakk falls, demanding immediate arrest of main accused. The Gherao was lifted only when DSP gave assurance to arrest the main accused within 7 days.

On 13 October, the bereaved family held a Bhog (religious ceremony) for the murdered youth. CPI(ML) CCM and state in charge Comrade Swapan Mukherjee, as well as Punjab’s CPI(ML) leaders Bhagwant Samaon, Tarsem Jodhan, Kanwaljit and Bant Jhabbar attended the ceremony. A joint action committee headed by Hukkam Raj of Mazdoor Mukti Morcha was formed with other dalit and labour organizations.

On 16 October, a deputation from the joint action committee met the DC Moga demanding compensation to the family and immediate arrest of prime-accused.

Security Workers Hold Public Hearing in Delhi

Security workers, employed in various private security firms in Delhi, held a Public Hearing at Parliament Street on 17 November under the banner of AICCTU to spearhead the campaign for the enactment of a special law to protect security workers from the exploitative and insecure conditions of employment prevailing in the sector. Hundreds of security workers from different agencies (IPSS, Elite, SIS, SWIFT, 24 Security, Walson and others) took part in today’s public hearing.

Workers spoke of the negligible welfare measures and rampant violation of labour laws in the sector, and demanded immediate enactment of “Special Act and Board for Pvt. Security Workers” in the state of Delhi to regulate their employment and service conditions and for welfare.

The picture that emerged from the depositions of the workers is as follows:

Security through private guards has become a common phenomenon especially in urban India, especially in mega cities like Delhi. In the last decade, the number of such guards and agencies employing them had grown at an accelerated pace. Delhi is no exception to that. During the last decade there has been mushrooming growth of security agencies in Delhi and other major urban centres of the country. As per one estimate, there are more than 5,000 registered and semi-registered security agencies in Delhi itself engaging more than 2,50,000 security guards. The terms and conditions related to employment are based on very ordinary contract, which leads to continuous oppression and dismissal. In a large number of cases, security guards are not being even provided uniforms by their employers (they have to pay out of their own salaries for uniforms, shoes and transport to and from work.) They work up to twelve hours a day, for a meager salary which is as low as Rupees 2000-2500 a month. They are rarely allowed to take leave even for a day in a month. A single day’s leave in an emergency without prior intimation often leads to dismissal from the service. They are not given any benefits under ESI and PF Act. Before joining an agency, security guards have to pay Rupee 1000 on an average for dress, which has the market price of not more than Rupees 400.

Addressing the public hearing, Comrade Swapan Mukherjee, General Secretary, AICCTU, stressed that the Government was yet to recognise security workers as ‘workers’; the Delhi Government, for instance, had not included this sector in its list of sectors where minimum wages would apply. The biggest struggle, therefore, was one for their identity, dignity and rights. He mentioned that the governments of Delhi and the Centre had been claiming that workers coming to Delhi from the ‘Maoist-affected’ states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and the like would be under surveillance. Such propaganda, he said, is a pretext to ensure that the workers in highly insecure, ill-paid and exploitative sectors are prevented from protesting against the enormously exploitative conditions. He called upon the workers to take the example of the Gurgaon workers who united across factories to force the Government to recognise their demands, and to create a united struggle for their rights.      

The Public Hearing was also addressed by CPI(ML) State Secretary Sanjay Sharma, AICCTU Delhi Secretary SK Roy, AICCTU State President NM Thomas, AICCTU Secretary VKS Gautam and Ardhendu Roy, AICCTU National Secretary Rajiv Dimri and others.

Peasants at Chunar on indefinite fast against land grab and repression

The recent events around the J.P. Cement factory at Chunar (District- Mirzapur) are an example so show how the privatization of a PSU is initiated by Mulayam and later Mayawati’s government abuses state power to defend the new owners against the local population. (see ML Update Vol.  12, No. 44, 27 OCT – 02 NOV 2009) Protesting peasants have been brutally lathi-charged, and 26 of them, including a 16-year-old boy, eight dalits and a noted lawyer were jailed under the Gangster Act.

The main demands of the agitating villagers were -1. The new management of the factory was employing contract labour brought from far off places. Employment should be provided to the locals whose land had been acquired for the factory. 2. The pollution from the factory and the newly constructed 38 MW coal based power plant was destroying the crops of the farmers as well as adversely affecting their health. Reckless exploitation of ground water was causing scarcity of drinking water for the villagers. They demanded a check on the pollution and compensation for the damaged crops and 3. A pathway passing through the factory and connecting the outskirts of a village to its centre had been closed by the management of the factory causing severe hardship to the locals. They demanded that it be opened for free transit.

The CPI(ML) decided to intervene in this movement and a Dharna was organized against police atrocity on 21st October followed by a protest march to the district Head Quarter on the 26th Oct. To further pressurize the government for the release of the arrested, an indefinite Dharna and relay hunger fast was started from the 2nd November in Chunar under the banner of Uttar Pradesh Kisan Sabha. Ishwari Kushwaha, the State Convener of UPKS also joined the fast for 72 hours.

With mounting pressure from the movement and all-round condemnation from the locals, bail was finally granted to the arrested. The judge while granting bail had to write in his order that the entire actions of the state machinery had been carried out so as to benefit JP Associates.

The indefinite dharna continues, and CPI(ML) plans to intensify the struggle in the days to come.

RYA Burns Raj Thackeray’s Effigy in Lucknow

Activists of the Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA) burnt the effigy of Raj Thackeray on 10 November outside the UP Assembly at Lucknow, in protest against the lumpen and chauvinistic violence by MNS MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly. Holding the Congress Government responsible for encouraging the MNS phenomenon, they demanded the arrest of Raj Thackeray.  The effigy birning was preceded by a spirited march by RYA activists led by State President Balmukund Dhuria from their office at Lalkuan to the Assembly.

Initiatives by RYA Punjab

From 27-29 October, RYA Punjab ran a stall selling revolutionary literature, films, etc, at a 3-day youth festival being held at the Punjabi University Patiala. Many students responded enthusiastically; a meeting was held and a committee of the RYA formed.

From 29 October to 1 November, RYA participated in the ‘Mela Ghadari Babean Da’ (Fair to commemorate the martyrdom of the Gadar party leaders – Gadri Babas) which is held at Deshbhakt Yaadgar Hall, Jalandhar every year. A documentary made by RYA on the Mansa struggle for homestead land, titled ‘10 Marla Zameen’ was also released there. RYA teams from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh and  Punjabi University, Patiala participated in various events at the fair.

From 3-4 October, RYA organised a stall at the Thapar Technical University, Patiala, and was once again received warmly by students.

On 14 October, the new unit of RYA in Gidderbaha District of Muktasar held a Natak Mela (Theatre Festival) dedicated to the Martydom day of Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha (16 October.) RYA President Kanwaljit, General Secretary Hasmeet and Joint Secretary Harmeet (who is from Gidderbaha) were present.

On 16 October, a function marking the Martydom Day of Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha was held at Punjabi University, Patiala and Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh.

AISA initiatives in Madurai

Private education institutions are making money with the blessing of the Government machinery. In Tamilnadu many minsters, politicians and any other capable criminal or money bag own a Private Education Institution. In Madurai students of a private polytechnic were attacked by police when they marched more than 20 kms from their private polytechnic to Madurai city to ask the District Collector to enquirer into the money extracted by the management in the name of penalties.

AISA issued a poster condemning the attack and held a Student’s Convention on 13 November in protest against commercialisation of education. More than 40 students attended the convention which was presided by Comrades Divya, Selva and Vinotha.

Representatives of many student organizations spoke at the convention. Comrade Usha (SCM,Tamilnadu) addressed the students. The convention decided to launch a campaign against the unholy alliance of the education mafia and the state government and to study and publish a document on the status of exploitation by the private institutions in Madurai district in January.

Workshop in Patna in memory of Comrade Ashok Kumar

On the first death anniversary of Comrade Ashok Kumar on 12 November, the Patna Town Committee of the party along with Samkaleen Lokyuddh organised a Workshop on ‘Current Situation in Bihar and Tasks of the Left.’ Comrade Ashok Kumar was a CPI(ML) leader, member of Lokyuddh editorial board, and in the course of his life, had not only worked as an political organiser in many states, but was also committed to the task of Marxist analysis and response to current social, economic and political developments. He passed away from a heart attack suddenly last year.  

The Workshop began with revolutionary musical tribute to the martyrs and departed communists by Hirawal. Comrade Brij Bihari Pandey, editor, Lokyuddh, then described Comrade Ashok Kumar’s life and values, and outlined the perspective of the workshop. The Workshop was inaugurated by Party State Secretary Comrade Nand Kirshore Prasad. Comrade Saroj Chaubey, Secretary of the Town Committee, presented a report of the responsibilities and tasks of the various branches and committees towards the Bihar Bandh of 24 November on the issues of land.

In the concluding speech, Party General Secretary Comrade Dipankar said that for the Left in Bihar, making land reforms (a precondition for Bihar’s development) a central political agenda in defiance of the spectrum of ruling class parties out to scuttle it was a key challenge. 

BSNL Workers Demand Implementation of Wage Revision

Demanding that wage revisions announced by the Government in January 2007 be implemented without any further delay, around 150 BSNL workers under the banner of AICCTU held a protest at the Ambattur Estate Exchange. They pointed out that wage revisions for officers had come into force 9 months back, but the workers are being neglected. On AICCTU’s invitation, C K Mathivanan, National Secretary of the National Federation of Telecom Employees (NFT) addressed the protesting workers. 

Pricol Workers’ Relief Efforts for those affected by heavy rains in the Nilgiris

Heavy rains in the Nilgiris have resulted in the loss of over 100 lives, and massive devastation of crops and homes. In response, workers of the Pricol factory at Coimbatore, already engaged in a struggle against repression, responded to a call by the AICCTU to contribute 1 kilo of rice per worker by way of relief. Not only workers belonging to AICCTU, but even the minority of workers who belong to other unions responded to the call. In Plant III, where only 73 of the 330 workers do not belong to AICCTU, workers responded across the board, and 500 kiloas of rice were collected as we go to press. In Plant I too the same efforts are ongoing. A team of workers plant to go soon to the affected areas for relief work.

Protest against Fare Hike in Delhi

CPI(ML) held a protest on 14 Nov. at ITO in Delhi against the hike in fares of Metro trains and DTC buses. Protestors pointed out that the Shiela Dixit Govt is on a privatisation spree, and the burden for Commonwealth Games is being borne by the common people. The Govt has reduced the Government-owned DTC into a revenue collecting agency for Tata, and is buying buses from Tata at 2-3 times the actual rate, not to mention paying Tata exorbitantly for the maintenance and operation of buses. The bus fares have been hiked steeply in order to meet this expense. Protestors demanded an end to the commercialisation of public transport in the capital city. A protest and street corner meeting was also held at Kondli on Nov. 11.

Ambedkar Study Circle is a platform for Dalit youth for their academic skill based empowerment of youth for self enhancement and leadership. Dalit Youth Leadership Project, therefore initiated the Ambedkar Study Circle, which is a platform of Dalit youth to discuss Ambedkar’s literature, his concepts on Social, Economical, Cultural and Political. This will help youth to enhance their knowledge and build up their perspective based on Equality, Fraternity and Social Justice. Hence, it has been planned to organize discussion on ‘Annihilation of Caste’  in Tata Institute of Social Sciences on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009,  will be facilitated by Asst. Prof. Shailesh Darokar.

Tunnel Rat, who blogs at itgrunt.com, has been having a torrid time with the rabid slumdogs who’re trying to take over the United States. The H[indu]-1B lobby of India Inc. is not content with causing the economic crisis by flooding American IT companies with cheap, incompetent slumdogs who drive one American corporation after another into the ground with their shoddy work. The subhuman slumdogs from the shithole sub-continent want to take over America, destroy everything that was built by Americans, loot all they can and then desert it like rats deserting a sinking ship. The smelly slumdog mongrels are perfect examples of parasitic scum that gorge on the host’s blood, fatten themselves and ultimately destroy the host completely. Anything that the Hindu slumdogs touch turns into dust. Even gold turns into shit when the dreaded dotheads from that Third World hellhole lay their hands on it.

Tunnel Rat is a courageous fighter who is determined to take on the powerful lobby of H[indu]-1B slumdogs funded by India Inc. and expose the damage the mangy dotheaded mongrels have done and are doing to the USA. As the smelly slumdogs take over one American corporation after another, they drive out the skilled American techies by force and fraud. They are replaced with thousands of semi-literate slumdogs from the shithole called India. Since the dotheads are incapable of writing even two lines of simple code, the entire American economy is coming to a grinding halt and millions of people are losing their jobs. The slumdog lobby still wants to let tens of thousands of semi-literate “upper caste” Hindu slumdogs into America as “guest workers”. These nasty, smelly, cow-piss drinking “upper caste” Hindu slumdogs run a Third World shithole called India where they force hundreds of millions of “dalits” and “untouchables” to live in crushing poverty by perpetrating atrocities against them on a monumental scale (called the caste system). These subhuman “upper caste” savages want to destroy the land of the free and the home of the brave and make Americans drink from clay cups as they do to their fellow Indians in their shithole nation. Tunnel Rat is waging a war to prevent these perverted pigs from turning America into a Third World shithole like their bitchland India. Or as he says, “We refuse to drink from your clay cup, madder chod!”

As one would expect, the slumdogs aren’t too happy about Tunnel Rat [TR]. The slimy subhumans have sent him death threats. They’ve also sent fake terrorist threats by impersonating him, causing TR to shut down his blog temporarily. The slumdogs were rejoicing, but it was back up in no time as a part of TR’s ‘Operation Honey Pot’. The slumdogs were walking right into a trap!

Though the slumdogs brought his blog down with a massive DDoS attack, they didn’t realize it was a trap laid out for them. TR trapped the slimy slumdogs by obtaining valuable information that would be used by the Feds to prosecute the criminal curry-munching cow-piss drinkers for their cyber crimes.

If the smelly savages from the shithole thought they could keep TR down with their cyber crimes, they were having a cow-piss induced hallucination. Tunnel Rat is back! The insurgency is spreading like wildfire and the days of the rabid slumdog mafia in America are numbered.

TR’s blog is an inspiration for American techies in the “insurgency” who are courageously resisting the masses of mangy dotheaded H[indu]-1B slumdog mongrels that are invading America. And he’s back with a bang!

Smelly subhuman sub-continental slumdogs! Cow-piss drinking, human sacrifice practising Hindu hoodlums! Perverted curry-munching, untouchability practising Hindi hooligans! Squalid sons and dotheaded daughters of slumdogs and slumbitches! Foul-smelling, female fetus murdering, dalit butchering barbarians! Utterly incompetent, disgustingly dishonest, sweatshop operating cyber criminals! Filthy resume-fudging fraudsters! You have earned the wrath of Shiva and Kali, you girl killing goons! The uncontrollable fury of Kali and Shiva shall be unleashed upon your gross, evil, savage, Godless, smelly, subhuman souls, you rabid, sewer-bred slumdogs!

Just give ‘em hell, Tunnel Rat!

(Image credits: Oddity Central, The New Zealand Herald and Reuters)

A curious phenomenon is unfolding in the Indian political scene these days. As a stand-alone event it is nothing new. A few politicians have indulged in such an activity once or twice in their political lifespan. But by virtue of it being a frequent occurrence it is generating enough curiosity and heat.

Here I am talking about Rahul Gandhi’s much-publicized visits and stays at the abodes of the humble poor in different parts of the country in the last few weeks.

The Indian political scene is witnessing this interesting series of events wherein no less than the ruling Congress party’s General Secretary (and heir apparent) Rahul Gandhi has been visiting rural households in the far-flung reaches of the country for no apparent reason other than to connect with the rural poor. What makes this series of events more interesting is that at the moment there is no general election season even on the distant horizon. The elections, in fact, have been over just about five months back and have brought his party back in power with a solid presence.

Altruism seems to be THE motive behind this series of his visits. Rahul Gandhi has foregone the prime ministerial and ministerial race in favor of strengthening his party at grassroots level and furthering his own social grounding. He has opted to connect with the masses. This ‘sacrifice’ of his will stand him in good stead in times to come. It is a brilliant move on his part. Residents of each area he visits, are unlikely to forget his charisma in a hurry. A visit by a politico of his stature is likely to leave a lifetime impact on the area.

While you and me might be content at looking at this series of events as his display of public spirit and leaving it at that, for a lot of others (read other seasoned politicos) they have become a matter of concern. So much so that people are either dismissing them as a gimmick or crying themselves hoarse that this is all within a well-formed strategy or a plan.

I say that if this series of connecting with the masses is not within a well-formed Congress / Rahul strategy then it should be. Rahul has opted to keep himself away from the ministerial responsibilities for the next five years. This is a golden time for him to see much of India first hand and form his own opinions rather than rely on hearsay. The Gandhi scion is showing an amazing foresight in putting in solid groundwork before assuming the mantle of prime minister. He will be prepared with a mature understanding of reality unlike his father who had the responsibility thrust upon him without much experience to fall back on. 

As for those crying foul or calling it a gameplan – nothing or no one has ever stopped them from connecting with the masses in the time interim two elections. How many times have we seen our politicians making an effort of reaching out to the real people let alone the poor, unless it is the election season? Even those who are self-appointed messiahs of the down trodden remain inaccessible to he very same populace.

And if Rahul is doing it with an eye to the next general election, all kudos for such forward thinking should go to the young politico. Indian political scene has a habit of remaining drab between elections. It is the grouse of common people that ‘netas’ are visible only once in five years. It is in fact for the first time we are seeing that despite having a recent successful election behind him, a politician is making such efforts and has actually chosen to abdicate his powers for the time being.

The disgruntled ones may argue that Rahul has a home advantage here by virtue of his birth. The throne shall be awaiting the prince whenever he chooses to ascend it. But then by the same argument I contend that with such a ‘birthright’ Rahul is one politician who does not NEED to undertake this trip of self-discovery. That he is making a real effort makes it a more commendable act.

There should be another natural corollary to all that is unfolding. Culture percolates from top down in all organizations. With none other than Rahul Gandhi taking it upon himself to connect with the grassroots, other major and minor Congress ‘netas’ will be compelled to follow the same route.

If some of Rahul’s true altruism rubs on to them as well, it will be an all round advantage for all.

This presentation was made at the Panel Discussion on The Digital Public Sphere: Books in the Age of New Media, Oct. 15, 2009, Iowa City Public Library as part of the 2009 Obermann Humanities Symposium PLATFORMS FOR PUBLIC SCHOLARS. Professor Teresa Mangum at the Department of English, University of Iowa invited me to this, and I had the privilege of discussing with important literary personalities. Translated into direct non-roundabout speech, it means that I was overwhelmed, and scared, and frightfully unsure of what I was going to say. There was essayist Scott McLemee, and the International Writing Program’s Director Chris Miller as the other speakers. And then, Joseph Parsons, Acquisitions Editor of the UI Press was the moderator.

Scott McLemee made points about the emergence of the public sphere in the context of the digital discussions–I have a whole page of notes, but nervous to type it out for fearing of going wrong with the transcriptions. I have never scribbled so furiously since I heard my Chemistry teacher at school go about the structure of Benzene. Heavy, but wonderfully well-articulated academic discussion. Chris Miller was much more down-to-earth, speaking from experience and personal history, and you will certainly know how much I love that. He spoke about reviewing books for Public Radio International’s The World program. Some bits of that talk (called Talk is Cheap) were truly hilarious.

Here’s my stuff:

I review one or two books every fortnight for The New Indian Express. And since I have just finished my doctoral thesis, I can safely say that I read about twenty books a month, if only for research purposes. I faithfully post all these reviews on my blog, leaving the door open for discussion. Readers tell me they have gotten lazy since they go around selecting books with the kind of reviews I write. Some urge me to be more spiteful, more vicious and develop an acidic style of attack. Many of the readers stray into my blog looking for a review of some book, then they chance upon my poetry, and taken an interest in my writing and activism. I love all of this. Teresa, in an email, asked me if blogging about books led to relationships with authors? I love that prospect too, but right now, they are all just friends. Facebook friends, to be precise. Let’s leave it at that. Translating got me into enough entanglements, so you see, I am playing it safe this time around.

Why did I get to blogging in the first place? I started blogging in 2002—when it was really not such a craze—I called my web-log Impudence, and it was typically at Blogspot, and I pulled it down two years later when I lost my anonymity and was stalked. That is another story for another day.

But, the democracy to speak up and speak out ensured that I was back to blogging again. Big media houses which own the major publications rarely give opportunity to Dalit (ex-untouchable) writers, and there’s an absence of Dalit/anti-caste writers who write in English. The elitist writers want to write the feel-good stuff, India Shining myths, and that’s the work that gets into print. So, I wanted to tap the power and enormous outreach of the internet: how anyone can write and be read/heard in the virtual space. I was not writing because anyone was commissioning me, I didn’t have to follow other people’s diktats, I could speak my mind. Google and tagging ensure that I can get heard without having my own column in any newspaper. Sometimes its helped me bring some happenings to light—such as the recent inside story of Dalit students being beaten up at a law university in Chennai (the mainstream media merely reported it as a “clash” at first) and so on. Blogging on feminist issues, with a caste perspective, was also something that I set out to do, because feminism in India forgets that caste exists at all, and that women at the bottom of the caste hierarchy do suffer more. Blogging about literature and books ensured that I got a larger audience–and consequently I got into the print media in a big way. Now, I review books for a major national newspaper. And, on an average day, my blog gets anywhere between 250-300 hits, which I guess is pretty modest for someone at the start of her writing career.

Since the cost of establishing alternative media in India is extremely high, activist groups have taken to the Internet in a big way. There is a hunger to use the potential of this media, and human rights defenders are doing it the right way. The campaign to free Binayak Sen; the exposes on state terrorism, fake encounters and police atrocities; the virulent speed in which fact-finding reports can be circulated; the ease with which the LGBT community in India came together and organized their shows of strength in every major city—these have all been possible because of the digital sphere and the space for social networking, discussion and dissemination that it allows.

For a few years, I was collaborating with Tamilnet.com, the only independent website that reported from the Vanni, the battle-zone, Sri Lanka’s war-ravaged territory. The news-site is banned in Sri Lanka, but proxies provide people a way out to retrieve some of the real information. Hundreds of thousands of Tamils across the world access that website on a daily basis. Just one single website in English, along with a couple of others in Tamil, had the power to destroy and dispel one of the worst disinformation campaigns ever undertaken by a state. Not just that, it binds them together as a community. Even if the absolutely paralyzed and impotent international community did nothing to stop the genocide of fifty thousand Tamils in the course of a few months earlier this year,  they at least acknowledged and addressed the fact that innocent civilians were being slain as part of a ruthless cleansing campaign. Were it not for the advent of online publishing, I doubt if the truth would have ever been told.

This sort of publishing on the internet has its payoffs too. I think E-books actually ease the cruel war against terror. A Catholic priest in Colombo told me stories of how Sinhalese soldiers doing a routine check on the local seminary in March this year checked for guns stashed inside hardback, hand-bound Bibles. If that Holy Book were just an unread PDF file, whatever threat could it pose? For the sake of argument, had Satanic Verses been released merely in its zipped version, whoever would have read it through? And what would the zealots have burned on the streets when they sought a ban? And what would I have religiously lugged around with me, as a hefty style statement, in order to impress a certain older man?

A book is no longer a material thing that you can use to flaunt your knowledge. It has outgrown its handiness as a pillow or a paperweight. Forget the dilemma of choosing the right shade of burgundy that would work well with lipstick-kissing your collection of poetry! Books, in their 21st century digital avatar cannot even be autographed. They have lost their fresh scent, their serrated edges. The loss of personality has ensured that books are no longer independent entities. It is time for them to collectively call upon a shrink. Or they can fall back upon their cosmic power, their new-found God-like ability to exist without any beginning or end. Reading one book is no longer just reading that book. Something in it prods one to look up for more, to chance upon tens and hundreds of other books. Every book entices you into its exclusive lair. But walking away has never been easier. Information is now served in its sexiest scrambled form, and extracting just a little something from that whole system is quick, but also cumbersome. And I somehow believe that the way a book is read presently is certainly going to radically affect the way in which books are written. Google-addicted audiences demand and deserve nothing less, I guess.

Yesterday, I met a young man as fierce and weird as me. I met him online of course, on Facebook, and by the time it was our fifth conversation there was talk of snipers. And he recalled sniper alley in Sarajevo, asked me if I had read Kurt Schork’s famous and heart-wrenching dispatch, spoke of correspondents being killed while reporting from conflict zones, selected Dan Eldon’s story in Somalia as the most tragic of that lot, condemned the necessity to make a biopic on him. And then we both laughed at the fact that the said biopic was going to star Daniel Radcliffe. Until the Harry Potter reference, I had to simultaneously google in order to keep up with this charming, but overloaded guy. But believe me, I managed to come out pretty unscathed, with no ruin to my reputation as someone well-read. Even of course, if the reading did take place way past the eleventh hour. Had the said conversation been taking in a coffee shop, or at the college library, I can imagine how wide-eyed and tongue-tied I would have been.  Thank god for the internet, for its explosion of knowledge, its enormous ease of access.

Would this presentation ever have been possible without the web? Where else in the world can ideas be bounced around with wild abandon, where else would people have the opportunity to offload all their knowledge on another hapless soul whose only sin was to have a green button indicating availability to chat. And above all, where else could anybody get away with preparing a whole essay and never having referred to a single book to do so? In which other world, would an author shamelessly admit to this?

(I thank all my friends who helped me shaped this presentation. I owe special thanks to Ravi Shanker, my friend-in-need whom I never stop bothering; his inputs were most valuable).

~~~~ End of article~~~~

The happiest part of the night was the $100 voucher to buy books at Prairie Lights. Thank you Teresa.

And the saddest part, was an American man, almost in his sixties, walking up to me and asking, “They got your leader, didn’t they?” and I would have cried then and there, had he not said (seeing my reaction perhaps), “But it was great. For 25 years nearly, he put up a pretty fight.” I am so shaken as I write this, but I think that’s all that matters. That one fights. For rights. For as long as it is possible.