Things to check out

I just read Anand Teltumbde’s piece in Tehelka about the contradictions of Dalit capitalism in India (a small section of the oppressed are enriched, while the vast majority are left behind):

The pro-elite, neo-liberal policy paradigm over the past two decades has reversed the wheel of progress for 90 per cent of Dalits, who have been facing multidimensional crises. The health statistics place them as the near-famished community; with rampant commercialisation of education, they have been cut off from the quality education; what little land they had is being taken away. With growing power asymmetry in villages between them and non-Dalits, the number of atrocities on them are galloping. To such people, the propaganda about Dicci by a handful of individuals should surely cause annoyance. Unfortunately, thanks to their pseudo-representatives, they no more have an organised expression. But, even their silence speaks.

As part of the debut of her new book, Broken Republic, Arundhati Roy has been in the news again, this time giving an interview to the Wall Street Journal:

“When you have 800 CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force, a paramilitary force deployed to fight country’s internal insurgencies] marching three days into the forest; surrounding a forest village and burning it and raping women, what are the poor supposed to do? Can the hungry go on a hunger strike? Can people who have no money boycott goods? What sort of civil disobedience we are asking them to adhere to?”

I’ve also been really intrigued by the report published by NYU’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, entitled “Targeted and Entrapped” (about the FBI’s attempt to trap young Muslims in terrorist plots by constructing them themselves):

Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. government has targeted Muslims in the United States by sending paid, untrained informants into mosques and Muslim communities.  This practice has led to the prosecution of more than 200 individuals in terrorism-related cases. The government has touted these cases as successes in the so-called war against terrorism.  However, in recent years, former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, local lawmakers, the media, the public, and community-based groups have begun questioning the legitimacy and efficacy of this practice, alleging that—in many instances—this type of policing, and the resulting prosecutions, constitute entrapment.