# Castism Is Racism : United Nations To India



## Admin (Oct 16, 2009)

*India loses              stand, face at UN forum*
                                      World is no more ready to listen to pernicious Indian stand that              caste cannot be equated with Racism

It              was high time that the world took notice of discrimination by birth              in India which is clearly the most widespread, pernicious and              intractable form of discrimination on Earth. Thankfully, the world              did so, and New Delhi has a lot of egg on the face.

                         In a body blow for              the Indian establishment's myth that caste discrimination across              India is something way too dissimilar from race discrimination in              the western world, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva has clearly              and unequivocally recognized caste-based discrimination as a human              rights violation. The UNHRC threw out              India's              opposition on this score, and New Delhi was also snubbed by Nepal              which broke ranks with brahmanical powers on the shameless caste              system and refused to shy away under the excuse of caste being a              culturally sensitive issue. 


                                       In fact, Nepal              emerged as the first country from South Asia -- the region where              untouchability has been traditionally practiced -- to declare              support for the draft principles and guidelines published by UNHRC              four months ago for ``effective elimination of discrimination based              on work and descent'' -- the UN terminology for caste inequities.             


                          India has always              worked against efforts to combat caste discrimination and has tried              to prevent internationalization of the caste problem. 


                                       Much to India's              embarrassment, Nepal's statement evoked an immediate endorsement              from the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights,              Navanethem Pillay, a South African Tamil. Besides calling Nepal's              support ``a significant step by a country grappling with this              entrenched problem itself'', Pillay's office said it would ``like to              encourage other states to follow this commendable example''. 


                          India's position              looked rather funny when seen in the context that in 2006, Prime              Minister Manmohan Singh had compared untouchability to apartheid. 




                          Adding to India's              discomfiture, Sweden, in its capacity as the president of the              European Union, said, ``caste-based discrimination and other forms              of discrimination based on work and descent is an important priority              for EU''. If this issue continues to gather momentum, UNHRC may in a              future session adopt the draft principles and guidelines and, to              impart greater legal force, send them for adoption to the UN General              Assembly. 


                          The draft              principles specifically cited caste as one of the grounds on which              more than 200 million people in the world suffer discrimination.              ``This type of discrimination is typically associated with the              notion of purity and pollution and practices of untouchability, and              is deeply rooted in societies and cultures where this discrimination              is practiced,'' it said. 


                          Though India              succeeded in its efforts to keep caste out of the resolution adopted              by the 2001 Durban conference on racism, the issue has since              re-emerged in a different guise, without getting drawn into the              debate over where caste and race are analogous.              


                          Discrimination              based on work or descent, untouchability or caste discrimination, is              widespread throughout much of Asia and in several countries in              Africa, affecting an estimated 250 million              people worldwide.              
                          Even though India              outlawed such discrimination in its 1950 Constitution, has passed              laws against the practice since then and has set up programs of              affirmative action, it is a bitter and unveiled truth that the law              is rarely enforced and caste discrimination remains endemic in              India.


----------



## Admin (Oct 16, 2009)

*How India flipped, then                  flopped, and finally lost*

The                  latest session of the UN Human Rights Council has challenged                  India's 13-year-old position on caste. This is because of                  Nepal's unexpected endorsement of a proposal to expand the                  definition of descent-based discrimination to include caste.                                    India's                  predicament may be bad. But it is worsened by its shifting                  position on equating caste with race as a form of descent-based                  discrimination. India spared no effort to keep caste out of the                  resolution adopted at the 2001 Durban conference against racism.                  But there was a time it insisted -- at another UN forum – on the                  similarity between caste and race. But that was more than 40                  years ago and it was a time when India was upholding the                  Mahatma's legacy and was in the forefront of the international                  campaign against apartheid in South Africa.  


                                  Here are                  India's flip-flops on caste as a form of descent-based                  discrimination:  
                                  - In 1965,                  India proposed the historic amendment to introduce descent in                  the "Convention on Elimination of all forms of Racial                  Discrimination" or CERD. It cited its own experience with caste.                  K C Pant moved the amendment as a member of the Indian                  delegation and admitted that "certain groups, though of the same                  racial stock and ethnic origin as their fellow citizens, had for                  centuries been relegated by the caste system to a miserable and                  downtrodden condition".  


                                  - In 1996,                  India performed a somersault when it submitted its CERD report.                  It insisted that caste, though perpetuated through descent, was                  "not based on race" and therefore did not come under the                  Convention's purview. It freed itself of any "reporting                  obligation" on the situation of Dalits and tribals. It said it                  was prepared to provide information about them only "as a matter                  of courtesy". But the CERD panel maintained that descent "does                  not solely refer to race" and that the situation of Dalits and                  tribals "falls within scope of the Convention."  



-                  At the 2001 Durban conference against racism, former Supreme                  Court judge K Ramaswamy, himself a Dalit, dissented from the                  Indian government position in his speech as a member of India's                  Human Rights Commission. "It is not so much the nomenclature of                  the form of discrimination that must engage our attention but                  the fact of its persistence that must cause concern," he said.                  He added that "the debate on whether race and caste are                  co-terminus or similar forms of discrimination is not the                  essence of the matter." Government representative Omar Abdullah                  contradicted him saying: 

                 "We are firmly                  of the view that the issue of caste is not an appropriate                  subject for discussion at this conference."  


                                  - In 2002, just                  a year on from Durban, the CERD panel issued a "general                  recommendation" confirming its interpretation that descent                  included "discrimination based on forms of social stratification                  such as caste and analogous systems of inherited status, which                  nullify or impair their equal enjoyment of human rights."  


                                  - In 2009,                  India's state of self-denial suffered a body blow when the UN                  Human Rights Council issued draft principles and guidelines on                  discrimination based on work and descent and recognized caste as                  a factor. The draft said, "This type of discrimination is                  typically associated with the notion of purity and pollution and                  practices of untouchability and is deeply rooted in societies                  and cultures where this discrimination is practised."  This is                  the document that Nepal supported, putting India in a fix.


----------



## Admin (Oct 16, 2009)

*Discrimination                  is Massive*

India                  has continually been coming under attack from global rights                  activists on the issue of caste. It wants to somehow deny that                  discrimination on grounds of race and caste is inhuman, unjust                  and illegal, and against the legal and moral standards set up by                  specific country legislations, Regional Human Rights Charters,                  UN Charter of Human Rights and the various UN Covenants and                  Conventions. 

                In Numbers,                  Substance, and Time, Dalits are the largest and most significant                  segment of the discriminated world population. That 260 million                  people in South Asia alone, perhaps more than the population of                  some of the European countries, are systemically subjected to                  continuous discrimination based on descent and work should be a                  mind-boggling factor for any human being sensitive to human                  rights. Discriminated in multiple forms and in various aspects                  of life on grounds of work and descent, they ought to attract                  global attention, concern, and commitment. That they have been                  humiliated by gross violations of their rights for centuries                  should at least now, though far belated, awaken world conscience                  - that of peoples and governments.

                In spite of five decades and talk of Constitutional provisions                  proclaiming abolition and prohibition of such discrimination,                  there is hardly any change today in their living conditions and                  in their right to live a dignified life. A 160 million of them                  live in India alone. For them the right to equality and freedom                  is still a mirage.


                 India's position                  that "Caste Discrimination is not Racial Discrimination" is                  increasingly being blown to smithereens. India is almost saying                  in several ways that discrimiantion due to caste is a practice                  that is so old that it cannot be eliminated rapidly. But the                  world has exhausted its patience.


                 The de facto                  perpetuation of the caste system entrenches social differences                  and contributes to daily violations. The existence of                  discrimination towards Dalits has been recognized by various                  national bodies in India and by the National leaders.                  
                 The Dalits are in                  different stages of socio-economic development and are engaged                  in divergent forms of work for their living. The practice of                  such traditional unclean occupations as scavenging, carrying                  night soil, removing dead animals, leather work, beating of                  drums, etc. gave them a low position in the traditional caste                  hierarchy and they are viewed as occupying the lowest rung of                  the social ladder.


The                  vast majority of Dalits are landless and work as agricultural                  labourers and wage earners to work out their livelihood.                  Dependence on upper class land owners for agricultural labour                  and perpetual subjugation, force many of them to live as bonded                  labourers. ... The condition of the Dalit women in particular is                  deplorable.                  
They are doubly                  underprivileged, being women and belonging to a Schedule Caste.                  They constitute the major work force doing hard manual labour                  and engage in agricultural operations and their exposure to                  outdoor work and interaction with cunning employers make them                  vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Abject poverty forces Dalit                  women to become 'Devadasi' the prevalent institutionalized                  prostitution system.


----------



## Admin (Oct 16, 2009)

*From 2007 to 2009: The Short                  Lived Glee*
Mansukh Kaur                                   
Just in April                  this year, the Indian government was gloating over what it                  thought was its diplomatic triumph when Geneva’s ‘World                  Conference on Racism’ did not decree that caste-based                  discrimination was to be equated with racism but the focus never                  really moved from the discrimination that the entrenched                  brahamanical powers in India are subjecting the vast mass of                  people to. 



                 In April,                  Durban II had a shaky start as the                  US                  had stayed away, the Israelis had staged a walkout and Iranian                  president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had mocked the Holocaust. No                  wonder, the five-day meeting had ended without including                  ‘Dalits’ in its resolution. 
                                  Now, the UN                  body has made it clear that Caste and race implications are same                  — discrimination on the basis of one’s birth. The one big                  difference is that in India, it received social as well as legal                  and political backing for so long that people have become                  apathetic to it.  


                                  New Delhi's                  claims of Constitutional cover for Dalits has persuaded few.                  Before the UN conference in Geneva, church organizations around                  the world expressed solidarity with the Dalits at a Bangkok                  conclave. This time, led by the World Council of Churches and                  the Lutheran World Federation, the church leaders vowed to                  continue the fight against caste discrimination. It is hidden                  apartheid, says Rikke Nohrlind, coordinator of International                  Dalit Solidarity Network. Casteism, he says, “has been                  skillfully hidden by certain governments, and Dalits are treated                  as lesser human beings.”


----------



## spnadmin (Oct 16, 2009)

I appreciate this thread. :star:


----------



## Sikh royalist (Oct 17, 2009)

aman singh,

brother i think caste system is totally different from the racism no one but the man who has deeper knowledge can differentiate between the two.
let me try my hand to explain a bit--

caste has four varnas-- bhramins, kshatrias, vaish and shudra 

races of India:-arain(aryan origin), jats(aryan/scythian origin), rajputs(aryan origin), kambojas(indo-iranian origin), gurjara/gujjar(origin unknown some relate them to huns) and so on

Dr. B.R. ambedkar who was revolutionary and very active against the caste system has given a good example he says that the Punjabi bhramin is of the same genetic stock as a Punjabi shudra but still the authority is with th bhramin this is castism and not racism

now i say that if a jat says that arain or a gujjar is lower than his race it would be called racism.

i see a lot of difference between the two.

a big change came in the 12 th century which can be discussed later and only if u agree to the above.


----------



## Admin (Oct 17, 2009)

How the Indian society has benefited from the Varnas System over the centuries? Why do you think that a system, which has failed humanity miserably over the centuries should not be scraped from the memory altogether. Being a Sikh, how can you even defend a system which does not treat a fellow human being on the same level pegging? i wonder...


----------



## Sikh royalist (Oct 17, 2009)

brother it is not that i support it i was just trying to explain the difference between the two i am sorry if u felt bad about it, never mind can u provide me with a link to introduction thread i have almost searched whole of the site but couldn't find it why don't u give a link with the welcome message when someone registers?


----------



## spnadmin (Oct 17, 2009)

Here you go - The link Introducing Myself

http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/announcements/5626-introducing-myself.html

:welcome::welcome::welcome: Sikh-royalist ji - Glad to meet you on this thread too.


----------



## findingmyway (Aug 24, 2010)

Everyone should sit up and take note. Distribute far and wide to raise awareness. Caste discrimination is not acceptable period swordfight


----------

