Nepal ditches India, says caste is akin to racism Despite Indian Oppn, UN Set To Dub It A Human Rights Violation

New Delhi: If the recent genome study denying the Aryan-Dravidian divide has established the antiquity of caste segregations in marriage, the ongoing session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva looks set to recognize caste-based discrimination as a human rights violation. This, despite India’s opposition and following Nepal’s breaking ranks on the culturally sensitive issue.
Nepal has emerged as the first country from South Asia—the region where untouchability has been traditionally practised—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.
In a side-event to the session on September 16, Nepalese minister Jeet Bahadur Darjee Gautam said his country welcomed the idea mooted by the UNHRC document to involve “regional and international mechanism, the UN and its organs’’ to complement national efforts to combat caste discrimination. This is radically different from India’s stated aversion to the 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’’.
The reference to India was unmistakable especially since Pillay had pressed the issue during her visit to New Delhi in March. Pillay not only asked India to address “its own challenges nationally, but show leadership in combating caste-based discrimination globally’’. The granddaughter of an indentured labourer taken to South Africa from a village near Madurai, Pillay recalled 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 are 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 practised,’’ it said.
India Isolated?
UN proposes to equate discrimination on basis of caste—on grounds of work, descent—to rights violation India has long opposed ‘internationalization’ of the caste issue Nepal supports draft, first south Asian country to do so UNHRC calls upon India to follow Nepal’s example

athiest

There is growing support for the ‘atheist bus campaign’ in the UK, US, Canada and parts of Europe. Just as the Church publicly exhorts the faithful to follow religion, various atheist groups came together as the British Humanist Association and decided to broadcast their viewpoint by purchasing advertising space on London’s buses. Non-believers were asked to coin interesting slogans and to contribute to campaign finances.
Richard Dawkins, the biologist, admirer of Charles Darwin and author of ‘The God Delusion’, announced he would match the money raised from the public. The scheme set a modest target of £5000 to be raised through public donations. But the actual collection was in excess of £150,000. It was a pointer to the campaign’s appeal and the chord it struck with many. Instead of 40 buses bearing the advertisement, it was eventually carried on 200 — much to the chagrin of the church.
The church complained to the advertising regulatory authority that the campaign was in bad taste and bound to hurt religious sentiment. The adjudicating authority rejected the complaint citing the primacy of “freedom of expression”. Some of the slogans used were:

• There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy yourself.

• You can be good without God.
There were variations too. Two dozen buses in Manhattan, New York, loudly proclaimed: “You don’t have to believe in God to be a moral or ethical person”.
And in an acerbic twist to the Bible’s opening sentence, the slogan used on 25 buses in Chicago was, “In the beginning, Man created God.”
In a retaliatory campaign, the Christian party in London hit back with its own advertisement for God. It said, “There definitely is a God. So join the Christian party and enjoy your life”. The transport authorities were, of course, delighted that so much ad revenue was coming their way.
The campaign has spread to Canada and Europe and shows signs of travelling further afield. The atheist associations have happily declared that their main objective has been achieved. Should the church want them to authenticate their claims, the argument can easily be turned on its head by asking the church to prove its case. The surprising element in all of this is that the 80% of the UK is a “believer”, according to surveys. The US is similarly devout and about 90% of Americans also believe in miracles. In fact, the US is probably the only country in the world that proclaims its faith in God on its currency with the printed affirmation 'In God we trust'.
Why then, would so many join the atheist campaign? Is religion losing its sheen? And what would happen if this campaign came to India? Would local municipalities risk their buses getting burnt for 'blasphemy'? Would political parties be glad of a ready-made opportunity to establish their role as guardians of culture? Would the government show the same maturity in handling the issue as it did in its response to the judgment on Section 377?
Surprisingly, despite its religiosity, India is home to many religions that deny the existence of God. Gautam Buddha clearly asked his followers not to accept even his preaching if it failed to pass the test of reason. Buddha’s argument was that if God is omnipresent, why is there so much evil all around? Buddhism also rejects the idea of a soul in a human body.
Jainism, which follows the teachings of Mahavira, propounds that the concept of God is falsehood (mithya). Mahavira believed that the universe had no beginning and so, there could not be a creator. Jainism asks human beings to exploit the huge amount of energy stored within each of us instead of searching for it elsewhere.
Hinduism — the religion of a large majority of Indians — officially accepts that atheists can continue to be Hindus. India has produced many towering personalities who did not believe in God. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, despite his traditional upbringing, was an avowed non-believer. The Indian atheist list would include: Babasaheb Ambedkar, Veer Savarkar, Ram Manohar Lohia, Manavendranath Roy, Ramasamy Naicker (his protégés MG Ramachandran and Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi), Baba Amte and Khushwant Singh. Atheism not only rejects faith in life after death, spirits and God, but is also severely critical of religious principles that do not stand the test of scientific scrutiny.
Hindu mythology believes that Brihaspati is the presiding deity of atheists. His philosophy is known as the Charvaka (or Lokayata) school of thought, which rejects Vedic doctrine and ridicules ritual as self-serving procedures of no real benefit to anyone. An estimated 2% of India’s Hindus are atheist. Few of them are aware that their religion allows for atheism. Most of them believe that society regards the atheist as abnormal, immoral and irreligious and this is why many atheists are wary of publicly admitting to their beliefs.
Ironically, in a country where atheism is a legitimate part of religion, a bus campaign similar to the one in the West would probably run into massive trouble. There would probably be widespread protest. Hindu philosophy is very liberal and extremely tolerant towards every living being, including plants and animals, there is no official costume, fixed days for worship, insistence on ritual, no desire to proselytize and ‘grow’ the religion beyond its current geographical boundaries, no rigid methodology for religious procedure. Hinduism is tolerant but can we say that of all its followers?

one day in india too............we shall have prime minister from oppressed class

i have a dream too....................................... like Martin Luther King had...............................................................................

" india will vote a person from the oppressed class of india to the country's highest political post"

Martin Luther King and ambedkar

The life of Indian leader Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was exceptional. Born in 1891 - - the 14th child of a subedaar -- he rose from being an impoverished village boy to become a lawyer, politician and  author of India's constitution. Along the way he overcame extreme discrimination and humiliation, acquired degrees in economics and law from Columbia and London universities, and led the struggle of India's untouchables (known as Dalits or the oppressed) for dignity and justice. Shortly before his death in 1956, Ambedkar, disillusioned with Hinduism, converted to Buddhism. He had to fight for everything that we take for granted and he was untiring. He also suffered a lot, but his desire to study, to learn, was undiminished. Furthermore, his intellectual achievements were very impressive. He became, for instance, an authority on the constitutions of the world. That's how he stands out from other national leaders of that period. Ambedkar was also constantly humiliated so he developed a distrust of people. He had to fight not only with the British but also with his own countrymen, with people from his own religion, and with leaders of the Congress Party. On issues relating to people of his own caste, he had to confront Mahatma Gandhi and later, after becoming India's first law minister, he had to confront (former Prime Minister Jawaharlal) Nehru's government on the issue of reforming Hindu law. His social and political struggle is of great relevance today, not just in India, but internationally. This man's life embodied the struggle for human rights, for equality, for social justice. He stands right there in history next to leaders like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.

Ambedkar was a great leader and scholar -- he was well-versed in economics, law, anthropology and philosophy. Tell me the name of a leader from any community today who has such scholarly achievements along with popular appeal?

obama and ambedkar

Befor sitting on judgement on Obama and speculating about his future actions, It is better if we read his immensely readable memoirs-"Dreams from my father'(1996, reissued in 2004) and a beautiful volume of well thought essays-The audacity of hope'(2007) to get a fair idea of the new president elect of USA and how he has travelled so far-we would get a lesson for our great but still immature democracy and perhaps these two introspective books ( need to be translated in Indian languages to reach the masses) would propel our young generation ( about 300 million young voters) to change the face of Indian politics-India is destined to become a great and mature democracy if we are all optimistic and continue to inspire our youngsters to emulate Obama-irrespective of our differences with USA-what has won there is the spirit of democracy-Babasaheb Ambedkar ( and many others who worshipped democracy) would have been proud of Obama's election, if he were to be alive today...India salutes the spirit of American democracy on this day

dalit entrepreneur

when i was a kid my mother used to always discourage me whenever i spoke of becoming a  entrepreneur........................" buisiness is not for us" thats what she used to tell me..............

if one sees the surge of entrepreneur in india representations from dalit community is negligeble. story of the oppresed class is same throughout

the world....................there is not even a single african-american human in forbes 500 list...!!!!!!!!!!!!!

reason?????? the oppressing class is lagging behind..........in grabbing the opportunities................because of thier disadvantageous background. if once they become leading entrepreneu r the equality could be a possibility....

waiting for that time to come.....................................

rationalism and caste system........................

...............................the best therapy for casteism is rationalism and atheism..........................

when the god through which u pray..................................is the hindu religion if u r from lower caste system u will be never be able to have the required confidence ,......................................................in ur self................................................................................................

so give the thought.............................u might get surprised.....................aceepting rationalism and atheism.......................u can easily come out of the web of hindu caste system