Tag Archives: Mumbai

July 30, 2015 · 10:39 pm

Death Penalty for Dalits and Minorities only

It is a fact that our legal system is skewed against the poor and marginalized. 94% on Death-Row are Dalits, Minorities, Backward Castes. Isn’t it shameful and discrimination?

So called upper castes use Death Penalty as A Free Pass to kill Dalits and Minorities!

The Presidents who have rejected almost all the mercy petitions that came their way are I believe Shankar Dayal Sharma, R. Venkatraman and Pranab Mukherjee.

The Presidents who commuted almost all the petitions that came their way to life seem to be K. R. Narayanan and Pratibha Patil (and Abdul Kalam?). Dr. Kalam was against the death penalty and wanted death penalty be abolished.

The first lot are all brahmins and the second Dalit, Woman, Muslim). There is clearly a sociology lesson here! Says Shiva Shankar.

India ashamed. In the name of justice, Brahmins spinning hanging ropes for Dalits, Muslims and minorities in India. After Dr. Ambedkar burned the Manusmriti publicly 9 decades ago, Brahmin judge goes back to Manusmruti to justify Yakub’s hanging!

Brahmin Judges & Brahmin President killed justice collectively. Yakub, your death won’t go in vain, people will rise against injustice! Oh Brahmins! You can arrest, kill, hang us but you won’t be able to arrest our pens. We will write against the crimes and injustices you do.

President Pranab Mukherjee is one of the most merciless Presidents India ever had, while his predecessor Pratibha Patil who rejected only three mercy pleas and commuted the death sentence of 23 petitioners to life imprisonment was the most merciful president and angel of mercy in recent times.

Having rejected 22 out of 23 i.e. almost 97% of the mercy petitions in the 27 months in office since 25 July 2012 Mukherjee has surpassed Shankar Dayal Sharma, who rejected all 14 mercy petitions. But he still has to beat the record of R. Venkatraman (33 rejected petitions) and Zail Singh (20 rejected petitions) to be called the most ruthless among the 13 Presidents of India.

While hearing Yakub Memon’s mercy petition Justice A R Dave on Tuesday took a strong line that as he had killed 257 people in Mumbai blasts it was the duty of the state to punish him.

To reinforce his argument, Justice A R Dave recalled verses from Manusmriti, and said a King must punish the sinners or the sin will fall on him and that a ‘danda’ (stick) has to be used for those who inflict cruelty on the innocent.

Dr. Ambedkar who despite publicly burning Manusmriti on 25th December, 1927 and declaring the struggle against the unjust and inhuman laws of Manu and the Varna system to establish a society based on the principles of equality, liberty and fraternity seems to be in a danger with such supreme court judges who quote Manu while sentencing Yakub Memon.

Shame on Justice Dave for having quoting Manu in the Supreme Court of India. It depicts the regressive mindsets of the upper Caste Judges appointed in the Supreme courts`. It is highly objectionable for a Supreme Court Judge for having doing such a shameless act.

We all should get united and fight against the injustice and crimes. Believe in humanity and fight against the injustice.

Do you support Death Penalty? Vote here.

19th July (1926) in Dalit History – Death anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar’s youngest son Rajratna

19th July 1926 in Dalit History – Death anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar’s youngest son Rajratna

Those were difficult times for Dr. Ambedkar. He lived in B.I.T Chawls, Mumbai; three floor building each having about 80 one-room tenements and having common baths. Although he was best qualified to fill the position of the Principal of Sydenham College he was not appointed despite of the best efforts of Dr R P Paranjpye, then the Member for Education. He accepted a part time post of a lecturer in the Batliboy’s Accounting Training Institute where he taught Mercantile Law. It was during this time that Ramabai, wife of Dr. Ambedkar, gave birth to a son. He named his son Rajratna whom he loved dearly. Before that his wife gave birth to three sons and a daughter (Indu) all of whom had passed away. However Dr. Ambedkar lost Rajratna too on 19 July 1926. Dr. Ambedkar was very sad & depressed because of the death.

20th June in Dalit History – Guru Nanak Khalsa college, Mumbai, brainchild of Dr. Ambedkar was founded

20th June (1938) in Dalit History – Guru Nanak Khalsa college, Mumbai, brainchild of Dr. Ambedkar was founded

Guru Nanak Khalsa college was the brainchild of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who wanted to set up a centre or an institute in Bombay for higher education. In 1935 he put forth this proposal of establishing an educational institution for higher education in Bombay to the Sikh religious leaders at Amritsar. The Sikh leaders agreed upon this idea with their main objective of providing good quality of higher education and also to popularize Sikh culture in a non-Sikh State. Thus in 1937, G. N. Khalsa College was born in a plot where the college stands today, with the total area of 27, 642 sq. yards. (Wikipedia)

Stop Attacking Dalit Statues and Dalit Pride

If you want to destroy a society, destroy its history and the society will get destroyed automatically – Dr. Ambedkar.

On 26th July, a statue of Behan Mayawati was broken in Lucknow; a day later, three statues of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar were broken in Azamgarh and on 30th July, another statue of Dr. Ambedkar was vandalised in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. All this is not new and has been happening to Dalit leaders’ statues, Dalit idols or icons, Dalit places and Dalit history since ages. Numerous Dalit saints/gurus were killed – such as Sant Chakardhar, Sant Namdev, Sant Tukaram, Guru Ravidas, Sant Chokhamela; people even tried to kill Mahatma Jyotiba Phule & Shahuji Maharaj. Dalit history has been maligned and distorted since ages. Historians are supposed to be free from fear, to be sincere, open minded, open hearted truth seekers & also courageous enough to show the truth at any cost. But it is the misfortune of Dalits of India that historians have shown a distorted picture & never showed truth to the people. Being Dalit, we have been taught to hate ourselves, we have been taught that Dalits’ don’t have any history; we have been taught Dalits can’t do any good. Who taught you all this? Upper caste people did.

Dr. Ambedkar’s followers were putting up statues of him in slums and villages even when he was alive but the first official statue of Dr. Ambedkar was set up in 1962, in Mumbai (Bombay) at the Institute of Science crossing. And then came the moment when Dalits started asserting and in 1966, Dr. Radhakrishnan (President of India) inaugurated Dr. Ambedkar’s statue in the Parliament building complex (New Delhi). In Uttar Pradesh, one research study shows that the very first Dr. Ambedkar statue was installed with the contribution of Dalits in around 1966 on the outskirts of Allahabad, and Dalits of Kanpur didn’t take much time to install another statue on the same lines. We must not forget that many installations of Dr. Ambedkar’s statues were opposed by upper caste people with stone pelting or boycotts but Dalits showed courage and didn’t move back. Dalits knew that statues of Dalit idols will stand as a major feature in the Dalit-Bahujan movement. And in all those statues Dr. Ambedkar will stand aloft. How can we forget the struggle and sacrifice of our forefathers?

Dr. Ambedkar Park, Lucknow, India

Statues of Dalit icons are built by Dalit people with their own money and contributions, not with the money from the state as Gandhi-Nehru statues are being made in India. So, why are Dalit icons’ statues being broken and damaged? Statues represent a crucial point in the aspirations of Dalits towards democracy, aspirations of Dalits towards equality and justice. Dalits gather around these statues, get organised, organising functions and all these gatherings give them strength to believe in themselves and get inspired by other fellow Dalits. All these attempts to demolish Dalit icons’ statues is an attempt to demoralise Dalits, deprive Dalits of their rich history and rob them of what Dalits have been able to gather after years of struggle.

Continue reading →

16 Comments

Filed under BSP, Caste Discrimination, Dalit-Bahujans, Dr B R Ambedkar, Equal Rights

Tagged as 22 Vows administered by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, ambedkar, BR Ambedkar, buddhism, buddhist, Caste at college, Caste Discrimination, casteism, Dalit, Dalit Buddhist movement, Dalit Statues, dalit-bahujan, Hindu Caste System, india, Jyotirao Phule, Lucknow, Malcolm X, Mumbai, Stop Attacking Dalit Statues and Dalit Pride, Untouchability, untouchables, Uttar Pradesh

June 28, 2012 · 1:04 pm

Buddhism in the Daravi slums

Mumbai’s Way: Buddhism in the Daravi slums (Visits to Daravi slums with Dr. Arun Kamble)

You can also watch the same video from this link https://vimeo.com/9441279

3 Comments

Filed under Buddha, Buddhism, Caste Discrimination, Dalit-Bahujans, Documentary, Dr B R Ambedkar

Tagged as 22 Vows administered by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, ambedkar, B R Ambedkar, buddhism, Buddhism in the slums, buddhist, Caste, Caste at college, Caste Discrimination, Dalit, Dalit Buddhist movement, dalit-bahujan, Daravi slums, Dhammapada, Dharavi, Dr B R Ambedkar Photos, Gautama Buddha, Jai Bheem, Jai Bhim, lord buddha, Mumbai, Mumbai's Way: Buddhism in the Daravi slums, Slum, slums, Untouchability, untouchables, video

January 5, 2012 · 8:03 pm

Upcoming Movie: “Shudra – The Rising?”

Now you can watch this movie from here.

I believe till now everyone might have heard about the upcoming movie on Dalits of India, i.e. “Shudra – The Rising?” In case you have missed the news, here is the news! Movie is produced and directed by Sanjiv Jaiswal and movie will be of 120minutes. We all know we can’t express the pain and suffering of Dalits in 2hours movie but still I believe it’s an ideal runtime for a movie and it will be advantageous.

Movie: “Shudra- The Rising?” Poster

A bit of storyline:

Movie is based on story of 250million people born as untouchables (and today’s Dalits) in Hindu caste system and subjected to humiliation and slavery since ancient times. When aryans came to India with the intention of looting, they enslaved the peace loving natives. Manu – Hindu guru – imposed laws on untouchables and barred them from reading, writing and listening holy mantras. Natives were treated less than human, impure, unclean and were forced to do menial jobs.

In the movie you will see, Shudra denied water, (Dalits still fight for such rights) a Shudra child’s nose chopped off for chanting mantras, (Dalits are still not allowed to enter many temples in India), a pregnant Shudra women forced to sleep with upper caste people (Dalit women still are raped on Day to day basis in India) and many more heart touching scenes – the only crime of theirs – they are born untouchables. Movie seems to be based on real events, if not real I bet, you might have heard such incidents once in a while in your life-time. It is believed that nature took ages to make man out of animal, but it took moments for certain men to make their fellow human animal again. “Shudra – The Rising?” highlights the depth that evil human mind can succumb, to cling on to power and supremacy.

Recently, the “Shudra – The Rising?” team has received screening Invitation for “Shudra – The Rising?” from South Asian Film Festival which will take place June 13-17, 2012, in Vancouver, and in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Canada.

My best wishes to the team

I strongly believe that movies on social issues should be made and given more emphasis. Sanjiv Jaiswal has chosen an important issue of caste discrimination, which has ruined millions lives and hopes. After watching trailers of movie, I can say that it’s a sincere effort by the team to put forward the caravan of Dr Ambedkar. I wish the team a grand success!

P.S.: Movie is going to release in Feb. 2012 and you can visit the movie site at http://www.shudrathefilm.com for latest updates. You can also follow producer and director – Sanjiv Jaiswal – on twitter at @sanjivjaiswal and join the facebook page of the movie at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SHUDRA-the-rising/102558246496607

Continue reading →