India's untouchables forced out of relief camps

[Karmadillo]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1535&e=3&u=/afp/20050107/wl_sthasia_afp/asiaquakeindiauntouchables

Fri Jan 7, 8:52 AM ET South Asia - AFP

KESHVANPALAYAM, India (AFP) - India's untouchables, reeling from the tsunami disaster, are being forced out of relief camps by higher caste survivors and being denied aid supplies, activists charged.

Kuppuswamy Ramachandran, 32, a Dalit or untouchable in India's rigid caste hierarchy, said he and his family were told to leave a relief camp in worst-hit Nagapattinam district where 50 more families were housed.

"The higher caste fishing community did not allow us to sleep in a marriage hall where they are put up because we belong to the lowest caste," Ramachandran said.

"After three days we were moved out to a school but now the school is going to reopen within three days and the teachers drove us out," he said.

"Where will I take my family and children? The school had no lights, toilets or drinking water," available for the displaced.

more...

[bleedingheart]

1. this is just disturbing

sorry but I found these statement unsettling...

""All the aid going in is distributed the same way to all survivors. The social discrimination has been there during normal times," said Amudha, who heads a team of UNICEF volunteers in Nagapattinam.

"After the disaster happened it is still continuing. That is nothing new," she said.

Vijaya Lakshmi, spokeswoman for South India Federation of Fishermen Societies, agreed and said one could not wish away a centuries-old caste system when a disaster struck.

"If they (Dalits) are comfortable by staying separate they will," she said.
"

Yeah...they are really comfortable being treated like shit...(sarcasm off)

[ooglymoogly]

11. this is outrageous

and should not be countenanced by anyone even pretending to have a mind.

[Stuckinthebush]

2. I've always been confused with the caste system

It's not like you have a card that says you are a member of a certain caste. Is it possible for a member of the lowest caste to move somewhere else and proclaim himself a member of another caste? Who would know?

[Kagemusha]

3. Private investigators.

No, I am not kidding.

[Stuckinthebush]

6. Seriously?

Even among the lower castes?

What is the hierarchy of the castes?

Thanks.

[LibertyLover]

5. Also by physiognomy

Not just private investigators, but, and I hate to say it, by darker skin color and body features as well. The untouchable caste are for the most part made up descendent's of the original (darker skin colored) Dravidian population. When the lighter skin-colored Aryan tribes invaded the Indian sub-continent and set up the caste system, the conquered peoples were put in the lowest caste - actually they were put outside the caste system since the so-called untouchables have no caste.

The same thing happens in Japan. There is a group there, the barakumin, who are the descendants of leather tanners and animal butchers. I have heard of Japanese families hiring a private investigator when a son or daughter gets engaged to see if the prospective bride or groom has this group in their family tree.

[Stuckinthebush]

7. We humans are really messed up

aren't we?

[sam sarrha]

4. from what i can gather the Untouchables are the aboriginals of India

the present Brahman's were an invading race that was later invaded by the Moslems and they F'd the Buddhists and Indigenous to stay in power as luckies of the Moslems...and kept the system because it provided slave labor and was profitable,... did i get that right..??

I have heard explanations by Muslim scholars that the invasion of India wasn't an invasion of religious conquest to convert, but just Pillaging and plundering the great wealth of India at the time.

[Bridget Burke]

9. Hint about the Muslim invasion of India.....

Most conquests are really not made to convert the Infidel, to rescue the King's beautiful wife or to spread democracy.

Pillaging & Plundering are usually the real reasons--but high-sounding excuses are needed.

[KingChicken]

8. Higher Enlightenment? Get rid of the caste system....

The caste system is really not in harmony with Hinduism and especially Buddhism, but I guess they make up exceptions just like in Christianity.

[Bridget Burke]

10. The Indian government has made it illegal.

But old habits die hard.