Public Discussion on "Internationalising Caste" - June 4, Delhi
From: Navayana Publishing <navayana@gmail.com>
Subject: 4 June 2009: Public Discussion on "Internationalising Caste", New Delhi
CACIM and Navayana
invite you to a
public discussion on
INTERNATIONALISING CASTE
EVERYBODY’S ISSUE? OR NOBODY’S ISSUE?
June 4, Thursday, 2009
3.30 – 6.30 pm, India Social Institute, New Delhi
Caste has killed public spirit. Caste has destroyed the sense of
public charity. Caste has made public opinion impossible… Virtue has
become caste-ridden and morality has become caste-bound.
--B.R. Ambedkar, in Annihilation of Caste, 1936
The efforts to internationalise the issue of caste-based
discrimination against the 260 million Dalits in South Asia and treat
it on a par with racial discrimination, which had received a boost in
2001 at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) held
in Durban, suffered a serious setback at the Durban Review Conference
held recently (April 20–24, 2009) in Geneva. While in 2001, WCAR had
discussed caste euphemistically as “discrimination based on work and
descent”, in line with terminology devised by the UN’s Committee on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the outcome document
of the Durban Review Conference (DRC) has evaded even an allusion to
caste.
More than a month after the Geneva event, there’s almost no public
debate in India on the issue. Dalits have tried raising the issue of
caste with various UN forums for over three decades now. The first
effort at lobbying with the UN resulted in Dr Laxmi Berwa, an
expatriate Dalit from the United States, presenting a testimony before
the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on 31 August 1982.
• What is shocking has been the near-total absence of any debate in
the Indian public sphere about the setback to the fight against caste
at the international level.
• Why does caste continue to be an issue raised only by Dalits
today? What is the role of civil societal groups in this?
• Why it is that society remains indifferent to atrocities on
Dalits—even though every hour two Dalits are assaulted, every day
three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered and two Dalit
houses burnt?
• Why have NGOs come to dominate the UN interventions on caste? Are
social/ political/ activist movements being left behind?
To debate and raise awareness on these issues and to broaden the scope
of the global effort at fighting caste, we invite you to three
sessions of debate and discussion:
THE EXPERIENCE OF INTERNATIONALISING CASTE: Ashok Bharti (National
Confrence of Dalit Organisations, NACDOR), Paul Divakar, National
Council for Dalit Human Rights NCDHR; Colin Gonsalves (Human Rights
Law Network, HRLN)
CASTE—THE MEDIA’S COMPLICITY AND SILENCE: Neelabh Mishra (Outlook
Hindi) and Pamela Philipose (Senior Journalist)
CASTE AND OTHER QUESTIONS: RACISM, COMMUNALISM, IMPERIALISM: Praful
Bidwai (Senior Journalist), Annie Namala (Director, Centre for
Programming Inclusion and Equity), Surinder Jodhka (Director, Indian
Institute of Dalit Studies)
Moderator: S. Anand, Navayana
Each panel will be for about 40 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of
discussion. After the concluding panel, it will be an Open House.
Tea will be served at 3.30 p.m.
For further details contact Madhuresh at Cacim 9818905316
(www.cacim.net) or Anand at Navayana 9971433117 (www.navayana.org).
Click here for ISI location: http://www.isidelhi.org.in/contactus.php#location
A READY-RECKONER OF ONLINE REFERENCES AND RESOURCES:
1. The official Durban Review Conference website
[http://www.un.org/durbanreview2009/].
2. Human Rights Watch on how and why DRC failed on caste. The site
also offers extensive background and position papers.
[http://www.un.org/durbanreview2009/]
3. International Dalit Solidarity Network website. Offers joint
statement by IDSN, HRW and NCDHR; plus a press kit.
[http://www.idsn.org/news-resources/idsn-news/read/article/durban-review-conference-break-the-un-silence-on-caste-discrimination/128/]
4. Caste and the World, S. Anand, The Hindu, May 24, 2009.
[http://www.hindu.com/mag/2009/05/24/stories/2009052450180500.htm]
5. Caste: Racism in all but name? Shobhan Saxena’s Times of India
report on DRC, 26 Apr 2009.
[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Deep-Focus/Caste-Racism-in-all-but-name/articleshow/4449716.cms]
6. Caste Out, Yet Again, EPW editorial on Durban Review Conference;
May16 2009. [http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/13508.pdf}
7. Seminar, the monthly journal, devoted an entire issue (Dec 2001)
to the Durban WCAR conference of 2001. Features articles by Martin
Macwan, Kancha Ilaiah, Gopal Guru, Dipankar Gupta, Soli Sorabjee and
others. [http://www.india-seminar.com/2001/508.htm]
8. Race and Caste, Andre Beteille, The Hindu, March 10, 2001. A
controversial article that triggered a huge debate.
[http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/03/10/stories/05102523.htm]
9. Race and caste: A Response to Andre Beteille by Kalpana
Kannabiran, August 2001
[http://www.pucl.org/reports/National/2001/beteille.htm]. Also see
this letter to The Hindu.
[http://www.hindu.com/2001/03/14/stories/05141306.htm]
10. India’s Apartheid, Rajeev Dhavan, The Hindu, August 24, 2001
[http://www.hindu.com/2001/03/14/stories/05141306.htm]
11. Is Durban the answer? Vir Singh, The Hindu, September 02, 2001
[http://www.hindu.com/2001/09/02/stories/1302054a.htm]
12. Caste, race and sociologists – I, Gail Omvedt, The Hindu,
October 18, 2001
[http://www.hindu.com/2001/10/18/stories/05182524.htm]
13. Caste, race and sociologists – II, Gail Omvedt, The Hindu,
October 19, 2001
[http://www.hindu.com/2001/10/19/stories/05192524.htm]
14. Caste, Race and the Indian Anthropologists, Amarjit Singh,
ambedkar.org [http://www.ambedkar.org/WCAR/CasteRace.htm]
15. The Durban dip can cleanse a billion sins, ChandraBhan Prasad,
Aug 2001. [http://www.ambedkar.org/chandrabhan/TheDurban.htm]
16. En Route to Durban: Thoughts on Caste and Race, Vijay Parshad,
n.d. [http://illvox.org/2007/06/en-route-to-durban-thoughts-on-caste-and-race/]
17. CPI(M) official position statement on WCAR, Durban; 3 August
2001 [http://cpim.org/statement/2001/2001_Aug_03_durban_conference.htm]
18. Caste and the U.N. meet, Kancha Ilaiah, The Hindu, August 21,
2001 [http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/08/21/stories/05212523.htm]
19. Caste and Race, Naunidhi Kaur, Frontline, 6 July 2001
[http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl1813/18130950.htm]
20. PUCL’s special focus on the 2001 Durban countdown debates.
[http://www.pucl.org/reports/National/2001/debate.htm]
