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Final Assault

We are gloating over our success quite legitimately. It is a pity. Butthere are not many options. The moment we give our news to thepress they keep it aside. The only reason is that we are Tamilians

and not Kannadigas. There is also a lot of stomach burning at theway we are designing success after success. This time it is very big.Really big! A lot of Dalit organizations all over the country are cryingover what the caste people are doing to Dalits, keep blaming othersand indulge in eternal analysis of Dalit situation. The same analysisof caste society keeps coming in the last twenty years. Very littlealternative is being developed. Dalit history has not moved muchbeyond mere rhetoric.

Here in Tumkur we have set up many models of success. We haveindulged in rhetoric. But we were very careful not to stop with that.Many of our so called friends, instead of looking at the methodologyof success have only invented excuses not to follow the hard waythat we have treaded. Some have said that it is a miracle, takingplace in Tumkur and that only Raj and Jyothi can do this. It is theeasiest way to escape from their own responsibility. There is also asubversive NGO mindset that tries positively to undermine ourefforts by creating false stories.

Today is a very big in the history of Tumkur District and in Dalithistory. Today is the most significant one in the celebration of

Maramma festival where free caste labour is formally perpetuated.The festival is taking place in many places simultaneously includingbig Taluk Headquarters where thousands and thousands of peopleassemble. But a small team of our Dalit leaders in the DalitPanchayat Movement headed by a frail looking Jayamma, a tallGangalakshamamma, a young Kiran, a simple Srinivas, acharismatic Narayanappa, a transformed Kambanna and a hot ofothers decided to take on mighty powers in the District. They wentin a delegation to all the bureaucrats of the government. Jayammaoccasionally took her mobile and called up the Superintendent ofPolice directly asking him to take action. We had to insist that she

should do everything as a team. It went well.

The other day the District Collectors called for a meeting of all Dalitleaders in the District belonging to all organizations. Very unusuallythey decided to keep quiet when the Collector praised Jayamma andour Organization for doing this unimaginable battle against thecaste forces tacitly supported by politicians. It was different. Usuallythey oppose anything that we do. This time they maintained astrategic silence. Their silence is our biggest support. If they keepquiet that is enough for us.

As we were going to the office this morning we could see many big

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vans of police moving from Tumkur city. We knew where they weregoing. They went to Sira town where a Circle Inspector of police (aclose friend of ours) was killed in a public protest of the castepeople. The police had to take their precaution. Now it is a womancircle inspector who means business and is a strong supporter of

ours.

We are receiving phone calls from all our leaders informing us thatpolice are everywhere all over the District, wherever the festival isbeing celebrated. In many places we already managed to stop it.But today is very special. Jayamma and Kiran are right in the midstof a huge village where politicians came to us a few days back andsaid that only in that village we should allow the sacrifice of buffaloto take place. We refused. We can be very sharp, we can be veryblunt.

This is history, a very big history. Nothing like this has happened inDalit history. We declared this millennium as Ambedkar Era inTumkur in 2000 and have never looked back in our success story.Prakash Ambedkar came to Tumkur to make the declaration. ThisTumkur model has to be seriously looked at by Dalit leadership inIndia to develop workable alternatives for Dalit liberation. Theyshould not focus on personalities of Raj and Jyothi at least till we die.Yes, we have had our opportunities in life for our education. But weare also from a very strong Dalit background. That we speak andwrite good English need not stand against us. It is the result of our

hard work from childhood.

Both of us, Raj and Jyothi have reached a stage in life where we feelthat we have achieved more than what ordinary Dalits can achievein their lifetime. We are happy to have put in place local Dalitleadership that has created history for Dalits. Now we are alsohappy that very soon our people will see solar lamps in their homesinstead of carbon emitting kerosene lamps. We shall beimplementing our CDM Gold Standard Photovoltaic lamp VER projectwith Bread for the World and Misereor as our Partners. Thepartnership has been already signed. We appreciate them much.

We are very happy to see our people walking in dignity and pride. Itis not so much our leaders who call us by phone. It is our people inthe villages who call us and feel very proud about themselves.Nothing else gives us this much of happiness. We are very proud ofour people and are ready to do anything that we can till the veryend of our life to see that this dignity and freedom that they enjoyalso translates itself into economic equality. We are very sure thatthe Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India that we have started,when it succeeds, will bring them the political power to achieve their

economic empowerment and make them enter into level playingfields on their own terms and conditions.

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Jyothi and Raj