CounterCurrents: In Historic Una Rally Dalits Pledge Never To Dispose Off Dead Cattle Or Do Sanitation Work

Dear Friend,

Today is India's 70th Independence day. In a historic rally in Una, Gujarat, where 7 dalits were publicly flogged for skinning a dead cow Dalits vowed never to do sanitation work and never to dispose off dead cattle ever again. Perhaps a new era is born in India, or the beginning of a new independence movement for Dalits? 

Jonathan Cook is revealing Israel’s darkest secret, the story of Israel's stolen children. Franklin Lamb tells how villagers in Syria are trying to restore our historic heritage. 

In our series on The Commons, James B Quilligan explains the importance of distinguishing between "The Common Goods and The Public Goods" and calls for a change in international and national/local governing systems to preserve our Commons. 

Don't miss a wonderful documentary produced by students of Hyderabad Central University on  fellow youth of Kashmir "In The Shade Of Fallen Chinar"

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www.countercurrents.org



In Historic Una Rally Dalits Pledge Never To Dispose Off Dead Cattle Or Do Sanitation Work 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/15/dalits-in-historic-una-rally-pledge-never-to-dispose-off-dead-cattle-or-do-sanitation-work/

Thousands of Dalits gathered in Una, Gujarat on Independence Day pledged never to do sanitation work and never to dispose off dead cattle ever again. Radhika Vemula, mother of late Rohith Vemula who committed suicide at Hyderabad university hostel in January this year due to harassment by university authorities, unfurled the national flag in the massive rally. It was the culmination of a 10-day Dalit Pride Yatra started from Ahmedabad on August 4. Una is the town where seven Dalit youths were publicly flogged for skinning a dead cow by local cow vigilante group on July 21.




Not In Our Name
by Faiza Nasir

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/15/not-in-our-name/

Why not we take a pledge this independence day, to not reduce this day and the sacrifice of the freedom fighters to a mere ritual. To understand the essence of this day and raise our voice for the people fighting for self determination in Kashmir, for the dalits protesting in Gujarat, for the minorities who are being subjected to suspicion on account of being minorities. Let not all this violence meted out by the state coated by cold strategic motives take place in your name, not in our name. 




A Country Of Poor People But Not For Poor People
by Sukumaran C V 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/15/a-country-of-poor-people-but-not-for-poor-people/

We are celebrating the 70th Independence Day today and let’s have a look at the condition of the poor in our country. “We are a country of poor people but not for poor people,” the Delhi High Court bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar said on August 3, 2016 while hearing the PIL on rehabilitation of manual scavengers in Delhi. 





Confusions Of A Patriot
by K P Sasi 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/15/confusions-of-a-patriot/

The tender coconut that you once gave me
Was certainly more tasty,
Than a nation you have offered
To keep me alive and to shape a meaning
For your existence than mine!




The Dark Secret Of Israel’s Stolen Babies
by Jonathan Cook 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/15/the-dark-secret-of-israels-stolen-babies/

It is Israel’s darkest secret – or so argues one Israeli journalist – in a country whose short history is replete with dark episodes. Last month Tzachi Hanegbi, minister for national security, became the first government official to admit that hundreds of babies had been stolen from their mothers in the years immediately following Israel’s creation in 1948. In truth, the number is more likely to be in the thousands.




Why Distinguish Common Goods From Public Goods?
by James B Quilligan 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/15/why-distinguish-common-goods-from-public-goods/

Not only does the commons vanish through this legal and linguistic shuffle, even the word “public” is stolen from the people. “Public” no longer signifies a community’s authority to manage its local resources and express its own social or ecological demands; “public” now means the central governing authority to whom we have surrendered the control of these resources, which then meets our demand through conventional private markets. 





As Our Cultural Heritage In Syria Hemorrhages, Villagers Work To Restore It
by Franklin Lamb 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/15/as-our-cultural-heritage-in-syria-hemorrhages-villagers-work-to-restore-it/

However tragic the growing list of damage to our cultural heritage sites,this observer has witnessed again this past week stunning restoration work initiated and undertaken by villagers themselves.And thisin what I would have perhaps considered the least likely area of Syria which, moreover, I had not previously visited during nearly three years of traveling around Syria and examining damage at cultural heritage sites – the Qalamoun Mountains.





Obscured American: Rudy List The Retired Math Professor
by Linh Dinh 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/15/obscured-american-rudy-list-the-retired-math-professor/

Over four days in July, I had a series of conversations with Rudy List at his house in Dexter, Michigan. A 74-year-old retired math professor





Sri Lanka And Office Of The Missing Person
by Dr Vivek Kumar Srivastava 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/15/sri-lanka-and-office-of-the-missing-person/

Sri Lanka with one of the worst records in human rights violations has come up with a positive step. It has passed the missing person bill with some amendments in unanimous way. The bill was passed with the support of TNA and JVP. The passed bill has certain good features; it will try to search and identify about 65000 missing people who have been missed during the long civil war in the country.





Caste – the Actual Cost of Empowerment? Dalit Women & NREGA- A Study of the Poverty, Social Exclusion & Shame Nexus
by Ashish Singh 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/15/caste-the-actual-cost-of-empowerment-dalit-women-nrega-a-study-of-the-poverty-social-exclusion-shame-nexus/

This book “The Actual Cost of Caste: MGNREGA On The Ground” seeks to examine the lives of rural Dalit women in private as well as public spheres. A theoretical framework of poverty, shame and social exclusion has been used to explore the objectives. The study goes further and analyses one of India’s biggest social security programs, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, and to what extent it has provided Dalit women with a shield that can protect them from who they are, what they are and where they are. The study uses Dalit feminism as a stand point, and utilizes the available data and literature to analyze the aforementioned objectives.





Why Intervention Is Worse Than Dictatorship
by Nauman Sadiq 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/15/why-intervention-is-worse-than-dictatorship/

Let me take this opportunity to make it clear that I am in no way sympathetic towards the unrepresentative Middle Eastern dictators in general and Bashar al-Assad in particular, but in order to assign blame for the wrongdoing in Syria, we need to remind ourselves of the elementary distinction between the constant and variable factors.





In The Shade Of Fallen Chinar
Video Documentary Directed by Fazil Nc and Shawn Sebastian

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/15/in-the-shade-of-fallen-chinar/

"In the shade of fallen chinar" is a short documentary that was shot in kashmir valley a few days before the current unrest began, It takes a peep into the lives of a group of young kashmiri artist's who are also University students. It talks about the factors that inspires their art and how it takes the form of resistance in a conflict ridden Valley.