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Message: <blockquote data-quote="uguduwa" data-source="post: 3489653" data-attributes="member: 75642">Anjamma: a servant of the gods Anjamma is a jogini or devdasi (servant of the gods). This is a system by which Dalit girls are offered to the goddess Yellamma just before they attain puberty. These girls are raped by the temple priests. Then other men take over. They are forced into prostitution in the name of religion.                                                                                                                                                    <img src="http://www.newint.org/features/2005/07/01/anjamma.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               My mother died when I was three. When I was seven, my brother got polio and was paralyzed. My father had to take out a loan and I went to work rolling bidis (cigarettes) to help pay it back. But it was not enough and the landlord to whom my father owed the money said that he should send me to be dedicated to the goddess to earn more money. I didn’t want to go. I felt very bad. My father said: ‘If you don’t obey me, I will die.’ So I went to the temple. All my relatives came. I had a new sari and many jasmine garlands. The priest called a man to tie the wedding tali [necklace] around my neck. The man was Rangasamy and he was 25 years old. I was eight. Three times a year we joginis used to go to the temple for important festivals. Everyone worshipped us and treated us well. We danced and went into a trance. Everyone fell at our feet and called us goddess. On those days we became very important. The rest of the time they made fun of us. When I was 12, I came of age (puberty). Rangasamy kept coming and telling me: ‘I tied tali on you, why don’t you sleep with me?’ I said no. But everyone in the village said: ‘Child, you are a jogini. It is your duty. You have to sleep with him.’ He had a wife and two kids. He gave me money and rice. After one year I had a child, a baby boy. Soon after that, he abandoned me. I went to Bombay for construction work to support my child. When I returned to the village another fellow called Raghav was very nice to me. He said to my father: ‘I will protect her.’ He also had kids. I became pregnant again and had a girl. But he left me after six years. I joined the joginis’ organization. I decided to fight the system. To prevent my sisters from suffering like me. I go to temples now and stop the jogini dedication. People said: ‘After sleeping with so many men, what’s your problem?’ The upper caste men started saying we spread AIDS. I said: ‘You sons of bitches, motherfuckers, bastards, go tell that to your wives and mothers. I’ll get the government to do DNA tests on all jogini kids and you can take them. I’ll take the joginis away and look after them. I’ll expose each of you who sleep with us and then abuse us.’ Yes. They’ll shut their mouths and run when they see me now.   Interview by Mari Marcel Thekaekara.      India's curse India’s real curse lies in the fact that, 57 years after Independence, Dalits continue not only to face daily injustices, but they can be murdered, raped and viciously humiliated merely because they have tried to break out of the caste trap to assert their rights as equal beings. Often the supposed transgression is something as ludicrous (to the outside world) as wearing footwear when walking through the dominant caste’s village, riding a bicycle or daring to wear clothes considered uppity, above their station, by the neighbourhood bullies. Often the punishment has the tacit approval of the entire village with a sizable number joining in, making the beating, rape, humiliation, a public spectacle to teach the entire caste a lesson, to remind them of their place in society. This is caste in its ugly, undisguised form. Such incidents are so common that Indian newspapers often don’t even bother reporting them. The big question is: why has so little changed for so long? Immed-iately after Independence, there were visionaries who dreamed of equality, justice and freedom for all Indians. Mahatma Gandhi led this movement. However, it required retributive justice, the distribution of land to the landless, special privileges for those who had been oppressed and neglected for millennia. The brilliant, pro-poor Indian Constitution envisioned all this. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, Dalit leader and intellectual, was its architect. It identified all the marginalized castes and tribes of India (officially termed Scheduled Castes and Tribes) and issued directives for positive discrimination, commonly called the ‘reservation system’, to ensure that these communities would be brought out of bondage and poverty. Subsequent Acts also sought to protect them, but the situation has only marginally improved because the Acts, like the Constitution, are ignored or violated. Today, Dalits remain the poorest of the poor; they are the majority of child workers, illiterates, bonded labourers, and have the worst health, the worst education and the worst jobs. Dalit women like Narayanamma easily qualify for the worst-off women in the world.   Gandhi’s dream of education for every Dalit child lay shattered in the dust   Many people were motivated and inspired by Gandhi’s call to rebuild the nation. But after Independence, the spirit of sacrifice gave way to greed and power politics. The movement was not far-reaching enough; it was too fractured to have any real impact and leaders became corrupt. Gandhi’s dream of education for every Dalit child lay shattered in the dust, trampled on by venal politicians in the corridors of power. Academics talk of lack of political will to describe successive governments’ failure to protect Dalits. Translated, this means police officers stand in the background and watch upper-caste mobs burn Dalits alive, because the village considers they are getting too big for their boots. Feudal landlords are aided by corrupt civil servants and government officials in maintaining the status quo. So they approve and abet in the exploitation of Dalits, turn a blind eye to bonded labour, and the terrorizing, killing, rape of Dalits who protest. Meanwhile everyone mouths the rhetoric of the Constitution and government documents hypocritically pay lip-service to it. Although India presents the worst-case scenario as far as atrocities and discrimination go, the situation in neighbouring Nepal is almost as bad. Caste discrimination also remains alive and well wherever the Indian Diaspora has migrated. Other forms of caste discrimination, outside of a Hindu context, can also be found in other countries in Asia and Africa. A recent UN study officially redefined caste discrimination ‘on the basis of descent or work and occupation’ and listed the countries as Bangladesh, Britain, Burkina Faso, the Caribbean, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, Japan, Kenya, Libya, Mauritania, Mali, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, North America, Malaysia, Micronesia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Yemen.2 Perversely, caste discrimination in Diaspora communities in the West has become worse in the last few years; as communities have grown larger, caste distinctions become more pronounced. In addition, the rise of Hindu fundamentalism has promoted the ‘be proud of your culture’ (read caste) syndrome, leading to greater segregation, separate temples and gurdwaras, and ugly divisions. Bleak though the situation often appears, there is some hope. Throughout India’s chequered history there have been people who fought for the rights of the oppressed. Even before Gandhi campaigned for the rights of Dalits, Christian missionaries had begun educating them. Their motives were questionable – to convert the heathen. And many allowed upper caste converts to cling to their caste identity. Nevertheless they educated more Dalits and adivasis (indigenous peoples) than anyone else. Martin Macwan, Gujarati Dalit leader for the last 25 years, believes education is a lethal weapon in combatting caste oppression. ‘Traditionally, the varna system banned education for Dalits. The laws of Manu declared: “Even by mistake if a lower caste person hears the vedas (holy scriptures), molten lead should be poured in his ears” and “his tongue should be cut off if he recites the sacred verses.” They had it all figured out. Knowledge is power; it is the key to empowering our people.’</blockquote>

Verification: Hata thunen beduwama keeyada? (60 bedeema thuna)

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