In the classic children’s story Goldilocks went into someone else’s house to eat and sleep uninvited. To her horror she was confronted by the owners, which happened to be three bears. Discovered she fled. At no point were negotiations on the agenda. It was after all pretty indefensible. This is a bit like the manner in which self-appointed Dalit groups with their unreconstructed Marxist and increasingly irrelevant church backers blame Hinduism for issues of caste discrimination and indeed poverty in India.
The Father, Son and Holy Ghost of Dalit Liberation
There is a three-stage strategy at work in relation to raising the issue of caste discrimination presently at work: incorporate anti-caste legislation in Equality laws in Britain; get these accepted at the level of the European Union; finally get the United Nations to condemn India as an apartheid state and condemn Hinduism.
On Thursday 18 October 2013, the European Parliament, which consists of elected representatives from the 28 member countries of the European Union, passed a resolution that condemned caste-based discrimination as a human rights violation. This is but a prelude to raising the issue with the United Nations. The precedent here is with apartheid in South Africa. Initially the issue of caste discrimination was raised in Britain and laws passed to outlaw it. The long-term strategy is however to isolate India and claim that it is an ‘apartheid’ state due to the caste system.
However when one looks at the issue it is one of poverty and marginalisation which cuts across caste boundaries. The real issue of social development, such as unshackling the masses from the reach of an oppressive Orwellian bureaucracy and increasing literacy at the primary level, is rarely raised.
That is because the real aim has not been to help Dalits. It has been to target Hindus as some sort of architects of apartheid. In South Africa, laws supported discrimination and segregation. It was the same in large parts of America before 1970, Australia until about the same time, and even Britain before the passing of the Race Discrimination Act in 1968. In other words apartheid was based on laws applied by the state. In India, caste discrimination and violence takes place in spite of the statutory requirements and constitutional processes, not because of them.
But like the trans-Atlantic slave trade the cause of Dalit ‘liberation’ is very lucrative. It means access to lavish funding by the state, access to people in the highest echelons of power, and access to the bank accounts of what Lenin famously termed ‘useful idiots’.
Rikke Nöhrlind, the coordinator of the International Dalit Solidarity Network, which works to eradicate caste-based discrimination is a vocal supporter of the resolution. Ms. Nöhrlind has been involved in the struggle for Dalit rights since 1999. In an interview with Ind Link, she makes these comments:
“Caste needs to be recognized alongside other grounds of discrimination, like race, gender. It affects more than 260 million people. Caste discrimination is a global phenomenon. The highest number of people affected by this particular form of discrimination may live in India, but caste discrimination is practiced in other countries as well. It exists in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Japan, and probably also exists in other countries in South Asia – but this is less researched.”
Nohrland’s arguments then take a more sinister turn:
“In the Middle East, Yemen is a case in point. If you talk of other continents, caste systems exist in Mauritania, in Senegal, so we are moving outside the Hindu religion and its religious sphere.”
If we were in any doubt that this is going to be an objective analysis the next barrage of venom form our Nordic intellectual warrior should shatter such illusions:
“While in South Asia caste discrimination has its roots in Hindu philosophy and religion and is sanctioned by the religion, it permeates into other religious communities as well. In Muslim-dominated communities, you would find caste discrimination and even in Christian churches.”
Caste as Racial Myth
Nohrland is adamant that its “roots” are in Hinduism and it only “permeates” other religious groups. She is also insistent on linking it to race by claiming it is like apartheid. This is a sad epitaph to a country which under occupation by the Germans refused to cooperate with Nazi racial policies. Eschewing Teutonic racial solidarity brave Danes risked life and limb to smuggle Jews out of the country so that they would escape the gas chambers.
Yet here is Nohrland pontificating racial concepts that would sit comfortably with Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich as they sought blue-eyed blond types for the SS. This is because the racialization of the caste issue has its roots in colonialist, Social Darwinist, eugenic and racist ideas of the Aryan master volk. Parading her usual woolly liberal spin:
“There needs to be a dialogue on how can we find a better way to implement the legislations that already exist, and there are many of them.”
Yet she bemoans India for not participating in dialogue. This is a bit rich coming from someone like Nohrland. In 2009 HHR actually organised a debate to discuss and have dialogue on caste. Now ISDN has minions throughout the world, including Britain. Hence the presence of 2 Danish workers from Dalit Solidarity Network who demonstrated their willingness to dialogue by staying quiet throughout the whole meeting, and then exiting as quickly as possible. This should not surprise us. Witness here at how Nohrland blames an entire people, civilisation and culture for inequality:
http://www.leadershipforwomen.com.au/globalize/caste-discrimination/item/rikke-noehrlind
“The caste system in South Asia has its roots in Hinduism, but caste-based discrimination is also practiced within non-Hindu communities.”
So it is clear why Nohrland and the useful idiots who follow her cult are not going to want to dialogue with Hindus. It is ironic and actually quite nauseating to see Nohrland and her mob attack Hinduism as a form of apartheid when she says this:
“The caste system has been termed the “longest surviving social hierarchy in the world”. In South Asia 3000 years of prejudices, prohibitions and prescriptions on social order have determined people’s lives and opportunities – inevitably leading to structural inequality permeating also modern societies.”
Whenever you see “3000 years” in relation to caste debates, it means Aryan Invasion Myth. In other words that some nasty brutal primeval colonialists of the same master race volk as Nohrland invaded India and conquered darker skinned aboriginals.
As well as being outdated and racist, this idea would warrant some introspection from Nohrland herself. After all would she blame Ireland’s backwardness when compared to the British Isles on the fact that her own ancestors sailed in longboats to rape, loot and pillage the Emerald Isle more recently than those horrible non-existent Aryans invaded India? At least they founded Dublin.
What did these supposed Aryans contribute to India? According to Nohrland it seems nothing except caste and that disgusting Hindu religion to justify it. Unless of course you ignore decimal numbers, yoga, the zero and an openness to other creeds, beliefs and peoples. But of course that would destroy the dark Kafkesque image which Nohrlandites wish to create.
Caste Cash Nexus
There have been many songs about money. Some praise it, worship it even. I am sure Nohrland is familiar with her fellow Nordics in Sweden, Abba, who gained fame and acclaim singing about it. In the process they became awash with it. Something which Nohrland no doubt wants. Because NGOs and other organisations have become commercial outfits. They may begin as idealists. But then they realise that the celebrity status is just too good.
Yes it is a sad fact that poverty and misery can be a lucrative means to make money. If groups such as IDSN do not keep the crisis alive, they will lose finding. They need to justify the donations they get and where it goes. Hence such groups which claim to be fighting caste discrimination have no incentive to solve the issue.
Politics such as this makes strange bedfellows. The anti-caste groups with their fake concern for Dalits would not have even got serious attention had Hindu organisations tackled the issue head on. But they did not. As usual they ignored it. Just as they did with the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Kerala, Fiji, Guyana and other places. Why was this? Because there is no financial gain in raising such issues of human rights.
You cannot appeal to the conscience of someone who lacks it in the first place. HHR warned Hindu organisations back in 2005 that groups claiming to speak for Dalits were going to make the issue of caste national, then on a European level and finally to the UN.
This warning was backed by Dilip Lakhani of the Vivekananda Centre, who resigned his participation immediately in the Hindu Christian Forum, which was being used by hardcore Christian fundamentalists to start a hate campaign against Hindus.
Yet no notice was taken. Indeed HHR was banned from even speaking about the issue by Hasmukh Shah, a prominent leader of the VHP (UK) who was once sought out as a potential ally by Nick Griffin of the British National Party. Now the VHP controls National Hindu Students Forum UK, and through this proxy ensures that organisations such as HHR which raise ‘inconvenient facts’ are denied a platform.
At the same time the VHP was very keen that HHR hand over its hard work and in depth research on anti-caste campaigners so that they could use it to their advantage. Are these guys really that stupid as well as intolerant? In any case they seem self-destructive raising issues of scant relevance to Hindus. Lakhani’s withdrawal from the Hindu Christian Forum left that body defunct and rudderless.
Until the VHP, Hindu Forum and one of the Hindu Councils (there are quite a few now carrying that mantle) decided to revive it so that they could get their photographs taken by leaders of a church which is going into rapid decline and irrelevance itself and commands scant respect in Britain today.
But when you hanker for fame and money that much, and lack even basic ethics and self-respect, you accept being pimped out by the very people who want to destroy you.
How ‘Hindu’ Groups Gag Free Speech
The dire experience of Lakhani and HHR at the hands of Sangh Parivar groups in UK was not unique. The VHP-HSS-NHSF combine went after anyone who dared to rock their cosy relationship with the British government as willing Gunga Din types.
No less a personality than Dr Gautam Sen was the human sacrifice of its wrath. Dr Sen has lectured at the London School of Economics, and also served as an Informal Adviser to the Government of India (Prime Minister, Law Commission and Ministry of External Affairs) on issues of economic liberalisation and relations with Nepal, while lecturing at various universities throughout his career.
Yet he dared walk the wild taboo, repeatedly warning Hindu organisations that that legislation against alleged caste discrimination in the UK (already legislated) would be followed by similar measures at the EU level, followed by church groups sponsoring condemnation of Hinduism at the level of the United Nations, in order to condemn it as nothing but caste-based racism in international forums.
For his efforts Dr Sen was treated with the same sort of boycott that Dalit, Christian fundamentalist and unreconstructed Marxists want to use against India. Now like Lakhani, Sen has authority and deep knowledge Hindu issues. But this does not matter. Indeed to VHP, HSS and NHSF it does not even matter what your beliefs and personal habits are.
What matters is your usefulness to the ‘tribe’, in other words the group. Can you bring in money and connections? Can you make them famous? Can you get them on television? Can you get them meetings with the prime minister at buffet lunched paid for by the taxpayer? Failing that you need to learn your place and be loyal to the ‘tribe’, doing whatever it tells you and knowing your untouchable status below the high-caste elite which flamboyantly and smugly strut their business and political connections.
Dr Sen was therefore excluded from meetings with the Communities and Local Government department responsible for formulating the legislation, after his participation in the initial one. He had had argued with civil servants to produce actual evidence of caste discrimination in the UK, while the self-appointed ‘tribal’ Hindu leaders hurled stupid accusations about a Christian plot at that very government meeting.
Now unlike the Dalit groups such as DSN, IDSN, Castewatch and VODI, the Hindu protagonists have even less reason to exist on the planet. They do not even deal with issues that are relevant. When presented with issues that affect Hindus they use verbal smoke and mirrors to deflect attention elsewhere. It would be accurate to describe this behaviour as that of a cult.
While Castewatch and such anti-Hindu groups organise meetings and events, the Hindu groups barely even manage that. In fact they are so irrelevant that a report last week to look into the machinations of the Hindu Forum was produced by the EPG Economic and Strategy Consulting, and written by its director, Pratik Dattani. On 10 October 2013, Mr Dattani wrote this:
http://www.economicpolicygroup.com/hindu-forum-of-britain-social-impact/
“A first-of-its-kind study for any religious or spiritual organisation in the world, found that the Hindu Forum of Britain (HFB) generated up to £5.4m of social value for Britain as a result of its activities in 2011.”
Well he would say that as he himself has been a member of HFB . The insider job epitomises again just how irrelevant and out of touch Hindu organisations in Britain are. Unlike the Dalit organisations, these bodies were founded with the precise aim of making as much money as possible and have been consistent in their lack of transparency and even a pretence at democracy as they create a social menace for Hindus at large. One would be hard-pressed to find a more blatant example of shallow-minded plastic veneer culture that has been thrown up by the narcissistic discourse which we constantly find ourselves in.
If there is money to be made from fighting Dalit groups, you can be certain that these ‘Hindu’ groups will lobby hard for state grants and donations from useful idiots among the Hindus at large.
The problem is that with so many so-called community groups and their even more laughable ‘Basket Case’ twin brother parasites known as ‘consultancies’, it is a bit hard to keep ripping off the same people time and time again. Dattani himself recognises this and bemoans:
“Despite being the largest umbrella body for British Hindus, the report found HFB has struggled to keep up with the increasing demands placed upon it in recent years. It found that the annual voluntary income for faith-based charities on a per capita basis was £30 per Hindu, but £78 per Muslim, and £788 per Jewish person. In other words, Hindus give far less to Hinduism-based charities than Muslims and Jews do to their own faith charities.”
Yes but what Mr. Dattani ignores is that his buddies in HFB are not relevant. How is HFB an umbrella group? Did they just get self-seeking temple leaders to sign a piece of paper claiming that they backed HFB? In that case why do the same temples claim to be part of the HFB and the various Hindu Council outfits? Why the overlap?
If it was not enough to have one useless parasitic group of leeches called the Hindu Forum trying to speak on behalf of Hindus, there are many others willing to play the game. Like the slave trade and now people trafficking, it is a very lucrative game indeed. Why work for a living when you can set yourself up as a community consultancy and ingratiate yourself with ministers so desperate to prove that they treat everyone ‘equally’?
A veritable goldmine such as being an ‘umbrella group’ will not remain an isolated occurrence for long. But being part of that self-justifying parasitic and narcissistic mechanism itself, means that Dattani’s report is not just a sick joke. Read it carefully and the signs are very ominous.
Hindus may give far less to ‘Hinduism’ and these bacterial infestations of ‘umbrella’ bodies because they have no connection with a bunch of elitist patronising social misfits who constantly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Everything in this world has to have financial ‘viability’. If there is no money to be made then they are not interested. Just like the Dalit groups, but even worse, something which few of us thought was possible. Dattani’s conclusion?
In other words find better mechanisms for getting people to part with their hard earned cash. It is said that fool and his money are soon parted. Well it looks like the HFB, EPG and similar types are running mighty short of fools to financially rinse.
On 31 January 2011 Dattani was interviewed by Manoj Ladwa on India Inc, which boasts itself as “the only online media organisation dedicated solely to the subject, providing industry news, analysis, high-profile interviews and key data for keen India watchers around the globe.”
http://www.indiaincorporated.com/component/k2/item/74.html
In this Dattani claims western business can learn much from Indian values, and that it is important to build understanding. He also lashes out at the “old-boy” networks in the City. Well that is quite interesting because this very interview exposes another rather nasty network at play. City Hindus works closely with NHSF. Ladwa was pioneer and former chairman of NHSF. On his India Inc article dated 11 June 2013, and regarding his attendance at the annual reception of the Confederation of Indian Industry in London, he lamented that:
http://www.indiaincorporated.com/component/k2/item/2462.html
“I did not, however, spot my friend Shailesh Vara, leader of the Conservative Friends of India.”
Yet Ladwa was formerly very closely associated with Barry Gardiner, leader of Labour Friends of India. On his own website http://manojladwa.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/11/ he boast that he “is the chair of the UK Labour Party Community Engagement & Empowerment Forum.”
Human Rights of Hindus Crushed by the British ‘Hindu’ Cult of Money
In 2005, when I was constantly pestered by Vara’s PA to meet with him after Sayeeda Warsi praised Kashmiri terrorists as “freedom fighters” (on national television, just 2 days after the 7/7 bombings in London), Ladwa also put in an unwelcome appearance with someone whom he now admits is his “friend”. Here, in usual slimy yet diplomatic hawkish way, he said that issues like Kashmir and Fiji were not important.
So he obviously was not there for the issues involving human rights of Hindus. Neither was Vara, who harped on about how proud he was of his Indian ethnic background as if to lecture me on the virtues of racial profiling.
Now Vara has not showed the slightest interest in Hindu issues. He does however show great interest in Ladwa’s commercial ventures. On 1 March 2009, the Sunday Express brought out the results of its investigation into these matters:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/87026/MP-forced-to-quit-over-conflict-of-interests
“A FRONT bench Tory MP who has led calls to clean up the House of Commons has resigned from a Parliamentary lobby group after the Sunday Express exposed a potential conflict of interest in his business affairs.”
Yes that is right. Ladwa’s “friend” Shailesh Vara, then shadow deputy leader of the Commons and one of the Conservatives’ rising stars, quit the All Party Parliamentary Group on trade and investment with India. The Sunday Express exposed his sleazy relationship with the former leader of NHSF, by revealing that his own company Saffron Ridge shared the same with Saffron Chase.
Despite Vara’s protestations that this was mere coincidence and he had no conflict of interest, the Sunday Express told him that not only do both companies share the same registered address in Staines, Middlesex, but they also have another mutual connection in solicitor Manoj Ladwa.
Now this former NHSF leader is the director of Saffron Chase, while his legal firm, MLS Chase, is listed as company secretary to Mr Vara’s Saffron Ridge. It was Saffron Chase which organised Vara’s meeting with Indian business leaders at the luxurious Cinnamon Club.
Since caste discrimination became incorporated into the Equality Act, the ‘Hindu’ groups have decided to form yet another mega umbrella with the unfortunate acronym of AHO: Alliance of Hindu Organisations. In this organisation groups such as City Hindus, NHSF, and Hindu Forum have come together with narrow sectarian group as ISKCON, in order to enhance what they have done to advance the rights of Hindus. Which is absolutely nothing. In a decade perhaps they might wake up and actually smell the coffee. Assuming that they still exist after fighting over the money from denuded state coffers and sleazy business dealings.
Ignoring the Warning Signs
By this stage of course Nohrland, DSN and the like will have taken the issue to the UN. That will make the so-called Hindu groups in Britain and elsewhere even less relevant. And no amount of cash, internal auditing and pseudo-intellectual spin will cover up that reality.
This is the politics of the Third World rentier state. Dattani’s crowd pompously try and impress in the same manner that Zaire’s despot President Mobutu awarded himself medals and honorary degrees
What is the reality? For the Hindu and anti-caste groups truth is not important. They are locked in a deadly Jekyll and Hyde embrace of epic proportions. They each need each other in order to have relevance. They also need each other in order to keep the cash flowing. While austerity measures have targeted marginal and disadvantages groups these so-called community organisations are doing rather well out of it. In Britain today the long-term sick are forced back into work. The long-term unemployed are threatened by a faceless harsh bureaucracy which constantly berates them as inferior when jobs in some areas simply do not exist.
The elderly and poor have to constantly struggle in choosing between heating and food. Yet the community leaders, consultancies and ‘representatives’ never face these stark choices. This elite crowd of patrician types are as out of touch with the actual Hindu community as present government ministers are due to their past membership of Oxford University’s Bullingdon Club.
Everything to them is about how to get as much money from as many sources as possible and use influence with government to silence other voices, the diametric opposite to a healthy civic society and indeed the mechanism of democracy itself. This is why the issue of caste will never get resolved because the dominant players in the market have an oligopolistic stranglehold on ensuring it never does. Otherwise they will have to do real work like the very seething masses they look down upon.
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