anti-caste: TRIBE SEEKS LOWER STATUS TO QUALIFY FOR AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

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May 30, 2008

TRIBE SEEKS LOWER STATUS TO QUALIFY FOR AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Low-caste tribe riots in Delhi for right to be 'untouchable' (Independent (UK))

"According to Indian law, the Gujjars – many of whom live in the nearby desert state of Rajasthan – are classified as belonging to the country's second-lowest group, known as Other Backward Classes (OBC).

"In the complex, divisive system this category is one step up from the lowest level known as Scheduled Tribes and Castes (STC) otherwise known as Dalits, or 'Untouchables'.

"The Gujjars say they have been discriminated against in terms of jobs, health care and education – particularly in Rajasthan – but say that by being reclassified as STC they will be eligible for government positions and university places that are reserved for that group."

See also:

Why the Gujjars are so aggrieved (BBC News, May 31, 2007)

Fighting their way to the bottom in India (International Herald Tribune, June 1, 2007)

Posted at 05:51 AM in dalits (untouchables), reservations (affirmative action), tribals / adavasis | Permalink

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major stories

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untouchable female leader of capitalist party is elected chief minister of major state
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BANGLADESHI GARMENT WORKERS
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(affirmative action) bill proposed
KALINGANAGAR
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GURGAON
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a case of state-sponsored caste discrimination

articles

notes on the Delhi rape protests
(2013)
What is caste?
(2009)
Marxism vs. petty-bourgeois dalit politics
(2009)
why Marxists must fight special oppression
(2009)
notes on the history of Pakistan
(2009)
towards a materialist analysis of caste in India
(2008)
reply to n+1 in defense of the revolutionary tradition
(2008)
Maharasthra burning: mass outrage after an untouchable lynching in Khairlanji
(2006)
reply to Jared Diamond on the social function of caste
(2005)
on the police repression of striking workers in Haryana
(2005)
on the Muslim question in India
(2005)
on caste discrimination against survivors of the South Asian tsunami
(2005)
on Godhra and the Gujarat massacre
(2004)
on the Indian elections
(2004)
on some recent atrocities against untouchables
(2002)

Marxists on India

Marx on caste
and the village community
Marx and Engels
on India and colonialism
Karl Kautsky and the Second International
on colonialism
Lenin and the early Communist International
on India and colonialism
Marxists on the perspective of permanent revolution
in countries of belated capitalist development
Leon Trotsky
on India and permanent revolution
The (Trotskyist) Fourth International
on India
The Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India:
documents (1941-44)
The International Communist League
on South Asia

The International Communist League on South Asia

European Gypsies Under Siege
French Government Crackdown on Roma, Immigrants
Bangladesh in turmoil
Islamist upsurge threatens women, workers and minorities: For a socialist federation of South Asia!
Australia’s War on Tamil Refugees
Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants!
Capitalist Profit Drive Kills: Texas, Bangladesh Disasters
On Caste and Women’s Oppression in India
(Letter)
India: Deadly Rape Sparks Mass Protests
For Women’s Liberation Through Socialist Revolution!
Imperialism, the Cold War and the Creation of Pakistan
West Bengal After the Elections:
The Political Bankruptcy of Indian Stalinism–Forge a Leninist-Trotskyist Party!
Barbaric Mutilation of Bangladeshi Woman
The Fight for Trotskyism in South Asia
Edmund Samarakkody and the Legacy of the Ceylonese LSSP
No to Public Silence on LSSP Betrayal
1960 Letter by James Robertson to SWP Political Committee
M.N. Roy: Nationalist Menshevik
Bangladesh:
Women Garment Workers Fight Starvation Wages
An Exchange on M.N. Roy
Sri Lanka:
Asylum Now for All Refugees! Stop Persecution of Tamils!
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On Nepal and Caste Oppression
(Letter)
India: Down With Government War on Maoists, Tribal Peoples!
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Defend the Tamil People!
Army Bloodbath in Sri Lanka
India: The Nandigram Massacre
“Left Front” Government’s State Repression in West Bengal
The “Honour” Killing of Aqsa Parvez
Women’s Oppression and Racist Reaction
Pakistan in Crisis After Bhutto Assassination
Down With Bush, Democrats’ “War on Terror”–U.S. Out of Afghanistan, Iraq!
India: Hindu Fascists Whip Up Religious Slaughter
The 1940s “Quit India” Movement:
Stalinist Alliance with Churchill Betrayed Indian Revolution

sources hosted on anti-caste

1855—“About the Griefs of the Mangs and the Mahars”
by Mukthabai, aged 14, a untouchable pupil of Jotiba Phule
1867—Karl Marx on the Indian village community
1928—“What Is the Permanent Revolution?”
by Leon Trotsky
1930—“Historic References on the Theory of ‘Permanent Revolution’”
by Leon Trotsky
1930—“The Revolution in India: Its Tasks and Dangers”
by Leon Trotsky
1939—“India Faced with Imperialist War: An Open Letter to the Workers of India”
by Leon Trotsky
1939—“Three Concepts of the Russian Revolution”
by Leon Trotsky
1942—“The Classes of India and Their Political Roles”
A Thesis of the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India
1984–“Marx on India”
by Suniti Kumar Ghosh
1993—“India: Hindu Fascists Whip Up Religious Slaughter”
(Workers Hammer)
1996–from “Social Stratification Among Muslims in India”
by Zarina Bhatty
1996–“Hijra” by Serena Nanda
(Encyclopedia of World Cultures)
2009–“Alienation of Tribal and Dalits Lands”
from the Committee on State Agrarian Relations and Unfinished Task of Land Reforms, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. Volume 1 (Draft Report)

selected links (for information’s sake)

Aspects of India’s Economy
journal with online archive
Bhagat Singh Internet Archive
(marxists.org)
Broken People: Caste Violence Against India’s Untouchables
(Human Rights Watch)
Caste Discrimination: A Global Concern
(Human Rights Watch)
Caste or Colony? Indianizing Race in the United States
by David Immerwahr
Communalism Combat
archives
Communalism Watch
“Resources for all concerned by the rise of the far right in India”
Dalit exclusion: The empirical evidence
by Sukhadeo Thorat
Dalit Fact Sheets
(Vikas Adhyayan Kendra)
Dalits and labour in Nepal: discrimination and forced labour
International Labour Organization
Digital Himalaya
Digital South Asian Library
Economic and Political Weekly
journal
Evidence
a Madurai-based NGO active on the caste question
For Separation of Religion and State: No to Ontario’s “Sharia Courts”!
Down With Anti-Muslim Racism! (Spartacist Canada)
Ford Foundation, CIA and the Social Forums
(Workers Vanguard)
France: Down With Racist
Anti-Roma Campaign!
No Deportations! For Full Citizenship Rights!
(Workers Vanguard)
Gandhi Centre Stage
by Perry Anderson
Harsh Realities of Dalits in India [4-minute video]
at India Unheard
Hindu social order and the human rights of dalits
by Sukhadeo Thorat (Combat Law)
Imperialism, the “Global Economy” and Labor Reformism
A Spartacist Pamphlet (International Communist League)
Marx on India
by Suniti Kumar Ghosh
Marx on India: A Clarification
by Aijaz Ahmad
Nayavana
“India’s first and only publishing house to focus on the issue of caste from an anticaste perspective”
on Bhagat Singh’s writings against communalism and untouchability
by Irfan Habib
South Asia Citizens Web
The Asian Human Rights Commission
news
Taslima Nasrin
The Annihilation of Caste
by B.R. Ambedkar
The Development and Extension of Leon Trotsky’s Theory of Permanent Revolution
(Workers Vanguard)
Threatened Existence
A Feminist Analysis of the Genocide in Gujarat
(International Initiative for Justice)
Three Essays Collective
independent publisher based in India, specializes in social science and South Asian topics
Trotskyism in India
by Wesley Ervin
Understanding Untouchability
A Comprehensive Study of Practices and Conditions in 1589 Villages (Navsarjan Trust)
Who Are the Guilty ?
Report of a joint inquiry into the causes and impact of the riots in Delhi from 31 October to 10 November 1984
Why I Am an Atheist
by Bhagat Singh
ZestCaste mailing list
now defunct, but see archives
“We Have No Orders to Save You”: State Participation and Complicity in Communal Violence in Gujarat
(Human Rights Watch)

from the U.S. Army’s Country Studies series

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anti-caste

on caste, women's oppression, communalism, and class struggle in South Asia from a Marxist perspective

May 30, 2008

TRIBE SEEKS LOWER STATUS TO QUALIFY FOR AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Comments

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anti-caste

contact

Categories

major stories

articles

Marxists on India

The International Communist League on South Asia

sources hosted on anti-caste

selected links (for information’s sake)

from the U.S. Army’s Country Studies series