Balakrishna Ganeshan

‘Illegal’: Lawyers Slam Hyderabad Cops For Frisking People at Cafes as ‘Preventative Measure’

On September 16, the Santosh Nagar police in Hyderabad carried out searches in 10 eateries and frisked all the customers for ganja and weapons.

In an apparent violation of privacy, the Santosh Nagar police in Hyderabad carried out a blanket search operation on September 16, frisking over 200 customers in eateries under its jurisdiction. Police personnel frisked customers who were having their dinner and evening tea, and went through their pockets and wallets, as a “preventive measure.” A video of this exercise shows the Station House Officer (SHO) entering a food outlet and asking the seated customers to stand up. “Just remain standing, you will be frisked,” he tells them and proceeds to direct his subordinates to frisk them.

The search did not yield any results. Nobody was found with any drugs nor were any weapons seized. Santosh Nagar SHO P. Shiva Chandra told TNM that they frisked the customers on suspicion of ganja (narcotic substance) or weapons possession. “We carried out searches in 10 eateries in our jurisdiction. We did not find anything in the search, but this is a preventive measure to stop any crime from occuring,” he said.

However, lawyers argue that this arbitrary police action is illegal. “It is atrocious to frisk citizens and go through their things. If the police suspect anyone of possessing any narcotic substance, they should be accompanied by a gazetted officer while carrying out the search. And before the search begins, the gazetted officer should thoroughly check the police personnel so that they do not plant any incriminating material on any suspect and frame them,” said lawyer and president of Human Rights Forum (HRF), G. Madhava Rao. HRF is a civil rights organisation.

“Carrying out such a search in the absence of a gazetted officer is illegal,” Rao said.

Searches carried out in poor localities has also raised concerns of the police’s inherent bias against certain communities. For instance, Santosh Nagar is a Muslim-dominated area. And the police admit to profiling suspects based on their looks, attire, and vehicle. “This is not the first time we are carrying out such a task. In our jurisdiction, we have a problem of ganja possession and other criminal activities. During vehicle checks, we regularly frisk suspects to search for ganja. We do fingerprint scanning and facial recognition of these suspects to check if they have any criminal background,” the SHO said.

This form of policing was previously slammed by many civil rights activists. In 2021, the Hyderabad police faced severe backlash when they started checking phones and the WhatsApp history of people randomly to identify potential ganja addicts and sellers. These type of searches are still happening in the areas around Dhoolpet, Mangalhat, Bhoiguda Kaman, and Jumeraat Bazaar, etc. Protesting this extreme form of illegal policing, the Internet Freedom Foundation had previously issued a legal notice to the then Hyderabad police commissioner and present state Director General of Police, Anjani Kumar.

TNM has reported extensively about controversial police exercises, including cordon and search, which are justified as ‘preemptive measures’ to prevent crime. The cordon and search operation involves blocking off an area, usually slums or localities that house poor people, and check for their Aadhaar card, gas cylinder and vehicle documents. Previously restricted to searches by the Army in conflict zones, this operation has now spread to states like Telanagna, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.

“Frisking people randomly is completely illegal. There should be some credible suspicion if such an action is being carried out. There has to be an FIR or a case registered in the police’s General Diary. Without any credible evidence, searching people randomly is illegal,” said lawyer Vasudha Nagaraj.

The eateries that were searched on September 16 include King Khaja Hotel, Lucky Hotel, Hafeez Cafe, Mashallah Hotel, among others.

According to SHO Shiva Chandra, Santosh Nagar, which is a Muslim-populated area, has a problem with drugs and other criminal activities. “There are ‘roadside romeos’, and a lot of suspects who sit in these eateries till late at night and plan crimes such as murder, smuggling, and other nefarious activities,” he said. The policing is carried out only in the evenings and nights when there is heavy activity, he revealed.

This article was originally published by The News Minute.

‘Adipurush’, ‘RRR’ and Many More: What Explains Telugu Cinema’s Right-Wing Turn?

Over the last few years, Telugu film producers have been specifically asking filmmakers to come up with scripts that would work well in north Indian states, where the BJP’s Hindu nationalist politics resonates deeply with the public.

The overt right-wing slide of Telugu cinema became a topic of political debate when Telangana minister K.T. Rama Rao said that Prabhas’s Adipurush, a retelling of Ramayana, was one of many films being made to peddle the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s propaganda.

“The BJP has come up with a strategy to combine nationalism and communalism … They won’t directly fund those movies. Many times we don’t even understand those movies. Uri, The Kashmir Files, Adipurush, etc. How come their timing is so convenient? It’s because BJP is working in a multi-faceted way to make this happen,” KTR had said in April, in an interview to a TV channel.

Speculation about their funding aside, there has indeed been a clear shift towards hyper-nationalistic and jingoistic narratives in the films churned out by the Telugu industry lately. One reason for this is pure economics. The huge profits earned by films such as The Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story despite being made on a shoestring budget indicate that there is a market for such films, which Telugu filmmakers are also looking to exploit.

Telugu filmmakers whom TNM spoke to said that a few producers have been specifically asking them to make films with elements that would work well in north Indian states too, where the BJP’s Hindu nationalist politics resonates deeply with the public.

Saffronising Tollywood

Along with actors like Prabhas, Allu Arjun, Ram Charan, and Jr NTR who have earned the tag of ‘pan-Indian’ stars, there has been the curious case of another actor in Telugu cinema – Nikhil Siddhartha – who has managed to build an impressive fanbase in the Hindi belt. Nikhil is way less popular than stars like Prabhas, with barely five or six hit films in his career (all mid-budget ones). Yet, he has managed to bag the title of a ‘pan-Indian’ star, mainly by capitalising on Hindutva sentiments.

Following the success of Karthikeya 2 (2022), Nikhil and the film’s producers have doubled down on making more films that could strike a chord with the core Hindutva constituency of the BJP, such as Spy (2023) and the upcoming The India House. Karthikeya 2, which was dubbed in Hindi too, had a bullish run at the box office and was listed among the more profitable films along with the brazenly propagandist The Kashmir Files in 2022. The Kashmir Files was accused by many of perpetuating a skewed narrative around Kashmir, by dwelling on the suffering of Kashmiri Pandits alone while delegitimising the pain of Kashmiri Muslims and vilifying them.

Karthikeya 2 released the same week as Bollywood star Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha. But Aamir’s star power was no match for Nikhil’s film, which had all the elements to lure the Hindutva crowd. Meanwhile, Laal Singh Chaddha faced threats of boycotts from right-wing groups for allegedly ‘hurting Hindu sentiments’ and ‘disrespecting the Indian Army’.

Directed by Chandoo Mondeti, Karthikeya 2 portrays the birth of the Hindu god Krishna as actual history and not mythology. The film was made at a time when the controversy around the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi gained fresh life in 2021, after a Varanasi court allowed a video survey of the mosque based on a plea by Hindu devotees seeking permission to offer prayers inside the mosque complex, claiming that it housed Hindu deities. Incidentally, minister KTR had said that he expected the release of Adipurush to coincide with the opening of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. While this did not happen, the teaser of the film was launched in Ayodhya.

Through its narrative, Karthikeya 2 portrays the Hindu deity Krishna as a doctor, climatologist, kinetic engineer, psychologist, and musician among other things, aping the views expressed by people like Garikapati Narasimha Rao. Garikapati Narasimha Rao is a popular figure among the Telugu privileged castes who offers Hindu discourses, and in his quest to appeal to young people, he often presents Hinduism as ‘science’.

Nikhil, who has since become the face of Telugu right-wing films, recently released another film titled Spy, directed by Garry BH. The film was marketed by promising to reveal ‘hidden secrets’ around Indian nationalist Subhash Chandra Bose’s mysterious death, a conspiracy theory expected to pique the curiosity of the right wing. Nikhil is now making a film called The India House, named after the base of Veer Savarkar’s activities in London. The film is co-produced by Abhishek Agarwal Arts, the production house behind The Kashmir Files and Karthikeya 2, and Ram Charan’s newly launched production house V Mega Pictures. Ram Charan’s RRR, which achieved global success, was also criticised by many for endorsing Hindutva majoritarian politics through symbolism from Hindu mythology and other narrative aspects.

Market forces, political powers

“It is the market and capital which determines what kind of films should be made. At present, across the country there is a nationalistic, jingoistic, and communal fervour, which the Telugu filmmakers want to exploit,” says senior Telugu film critic and journalist Bharadwaja Rangavajhala.

While Nikhil has become the overt face of right-wing films with ‘pan-Indian’ success, there have been other films such as Jawaan (2017), RRR (2022), Major (2022), Acharya (2022), and others which have also milked the prevailing popular sentiment.

“Rajamouli’s RRR was an outright Hindutva film. The freedom fighters Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem were turned into Hindu gods Rama and Hanuman so that the film would work well across India. Rajamouli realised that there was a market for such films and encashed it,” says Bharadwaja.

In RRR’s ‘Etthara Jenda’ song, a tribute to Indian freedom fighters, the absence of Gandhi and Nehru was conspicuous. Rajamouli’s father Vijayendra Prasad, who was the writer of the film, said that it was a deliberate decision. Speaking about Gandhi advocating for Nehru over Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to be made India’s first prime minister, Vijayendra Prasad said, “If Patel was [made PM], Kashmir would not have been burning like a ‘Ravana kashtam’ (Ravana’s funeral pyre).”

This narrative aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s views on the issue as expressed in the parliament back in 2018. However, recorded history indicates that Patel’s views on Kashmir were not as straightforward, and there is no definitive record of how he planned to handle the issue.

The BJP meeting Telugu film stars as part of their political outreach efforts is also a testimony to the proximity and the interests shared between the two. Vijayendra Prasad, who is now also a Rajya Sabha MP nominated by the President, has announced that he will be writing a film and web series glorifying the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the BJP. Showering praise on the RSS while speaking at a book launch event of RSS National Executive Member Ram Madhav, Vijayendra Prasad said that he was roped in to write a film about three to four years earlier (after the Baahubali films had become hugely successful).

“I would like to confess something in front of you all. Until three or four years ago, I didn’t know much about the RSS. Like many others, I believed that they killed Gandhi. But four years ago, they asked me to write a film on RSS. As I was being paid for it, I went to Nagpur and met [RSS chief] Mohan Bhagwat. I stayed there for a day and understood for the first time what RSS is. I felt a lot of remorse, that I wasn’t aware of such a great organisation for so long.” He went on to say, “If RSS wasn’t there, there would be no Kashmir, it would’ve merged with Pakistan. Lakhs of Hindus would have died due to Pakistan.”

S.S. Rajamouli (left) and Vijayendra Prasad (right). Photos: Rajamouli (Wikimedia Commons), Prasad (Screengrab via YouTube video/Open Hear with RK).

Rajamouli praised his father’s script of the RSS film in an interview with The New Yorker, saying it made him cry as it was very emotional. However, he said he was unsure about the political implications of such a film.

Vijayendra Prasad has been called on to write films not just by RSS but even by BJP leaders. Since The Kashmir Files was released, former president of BJP’s Telangana unit Bandi Sanjay Kumar has talked about a film titled The Razakar Files in the making, which would depict the atrocities of Razakars – a private militia that committed several atrocities and defended the Nizam rule. Bandi Sanjay has also reportedly approached Vijayendra Prasad to write this film.

The (un)changing course of Telugu cinema

In the 1930s, Telugu cinema mirrored the social reform politics that defined Indian nationalism before independence. Gudavalli Ramabrahmam, who is credited as a pioneer in Telugu cinema, made two classic films – Mala Pilla (A Girl from the Mala Scheduled Caste) in 1938, and Raithu Bidda (Farmer of Common Origins) in 1939.

Mala Pilla was a film that addressed caste discrimination, and Raithu Bidda was a critique of zamindars’ exploitation. Both these films were reformist in nature with influences from Gandhian nationalism, writes S.V. Srinivas, Professor of Film and Cultural Studies at Azim Premji University, in his book Politics as Performance: A Social History of Telugu Cinema. How did a film industry which once produced anti-caste films, and propagated Gandhian and communist ideologies, turn towards the right wing?

“The Telugu film industry has always been capitalistic in nature. It appropriated whatever sentiment was working for it. They even made communist films [particularly in the 1990s] because the masses enjoyed such films and songs. They simply moved away when the Left movement saw a decline. Now the film industry inclining towards the right wing is not unsurprising. They have found a market and are using it,” says Swamy* (name changed), an upcoming filmmaker.

Srinivas Kondra, a Ph.D. scholar at the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad, says that the lack of a large, influential social movement like the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu is also among the reasons for the current crisis in Telugu cinema. “There is some resistance in Tamil Nadu, where many people view Hindu propaganda films critically. Because of caste consciousness, they are able to look at the Hindu religion critically, and question [such propaganda]. In Andhra Pradesh, there were movements around class, but not effective ones against caste,” he notes.

A Telugu director speaking on the condition of anonymity said, “There are producers who are specifically asking directors to come up with stories or elements which would click with audiences in other parts of the country too. They want films which would capture the prevailing right-wing sentiment.”

Prabhas’s Adipurush, based on the Hindu epic Ramayana, was one such project which tried to exploit this market. The film, which was released in five languages (Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada) failed at impressing the audience because of poor storytelling, appalling visual effects and terrible dialogues.

Despite leaning towards the Hindu right-wing, so far, the Telugu film industry has not produced any film which has vilified Muslims the way that The Kashmir Files or The Kerala Story does (at least not yet). This is not to say that Muslims were not projected negatively in Telugu films before the BJP was elected to power in 2014.

Krishna Vamsi’s Khadgam (2002) was possibly one of the first Telugu films made in the aftermath of the terror attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, which employed the good Muslim-bad Muslim binary. In the film, Prakash Raj plays Amjad, an auto driver who is a nationalist. In contrast, his brother Azhar joins a terror outfit and plans a terror attack in Hyderabad. Srikanth plays a police officer who views Muslims with suspicion. Other films released in subsequent years such as Vedam (2010) and Naa Peru Surya, Naa Illu India (2018), which portray radicalised Muslim characters, also had similar narrative elements of including a ‘good Muslim’ and ‘bad Muslim’ in the same family.

“There is not much scope for vilifying Muslims in Telugu cinema through such propaganda films, as the Muslim population in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is much lower compared to places like Kashmir or Kerala. So, that agenda is unlikely to work,” observes Swamy.

This article first appeared on The News Minute. Read the original piece here.

In Telangana’s Nizamabad, ‘Dealing’ With Manual Scavenging Means to Pretend it Doesn’t Exist

The district of Nizamabad has not enumerated the number of manual scavenging workers, has not rehabilitated even a single manual scavenging worker, and has done little to prosecute those forcing people into manual scavenging.

Four hours from one of the biggest IT hubs of India, Hyderabad, lies Nizamabad, a district with a population of over 3.11 lakh. But the technological prowess of the state doesn’t extend to sanitation in the district. Despite a ban on the inhuman practice of manual scavenging, the district has bought just two jetting machines — the ‘technology’ that can ensure that human beings don’t have to crawl through sewers and climb into septic tanks to unclog them. In an RTI reply to The News Minute, the Nizamabad Municipal Corporation disclosed that they spent less than Rs 1 crore towards eliminating human intervention while clearing drains and manholes. The administration purchased a ‘combined sewer high pressure jetting cum suction machine’ for Rs 46.84 lakh, and bought a ‘3 in 1 jetting, rodding cum grabbing machine’ for Rs 48.99 lakh.

TNM has also learned through RTI responses and discussions with activists and manual scavenging workers that the district of Nizamabad has not enumerated the number of manual scavenging workers, has not rehabilitated even a single manual scavenging worker, and has done little to prosecute those forcing people into manual scavenging. Since 2013, the district has provided compensation to the family of only one manual scavenging worker who died — and even that compensation was given 12 years after the victim’s death.

Manual scavenging has been prohibited by the Indian government since 1993, but it was only after widespread protests by Dalit groups that the practice was made a punishable offence in 2013. As per the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, anyone employing a person for manual scavenging work, whether directly or indirectly, can be jailed for upto a year, or made to pay a fine of Rs 50,000, or both. For repeat offences, imprisonment could go upto two years or a fine, which may extend to Rs 1 lakh, or both. Similarly, no person or agency shall employ, directly or indirectly, any person for hazardous cleaning of a sewer or a septic tank, the Act states.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, no cases have been filed under this law between 2013-2014. across the country. In 2015, only two cases were registered in Karnataka. The following year, in 2016, NCRB stopped showing the number of cases registered under the Act separately in its main report. The cases were provided in the additional tables. As per the report, only two cases were registered in Tamil Nadu. And from 2017, NCRB instead of publishing the data under a separate head and column, merged it with cases under the existing ‘Other Special and Local Laws (SLLs)’, effectively making it impossible to know the number of cases registered under the law. TNM took a closer look at how the law is being implemented in Nizamabad, and this is what we found.

Denial, not decency: How ‘manual scavenging’ is recorded

There have been five deaths due to manual scavenging in Nizamabad town since 2010, but only one made it to the official list for compensation compiled by the district administration. The victim, Darshanam Abbaiah, belonging to the Madiga Scheduled Caste, had died during the peak of monsoon in 2010, while clearing a stormwater drain. He was employed by the Nizamabad Municipal Corporation on a contract basis. While Abbaiah’s family was fortunate to be identified for a compensation of Rs 10 lakh, the money itself took 12 years to arrive. “Ever since my husband’s death, our family has been through several difficulties. I did not have a home and my children could not be educated,” Taradevi, Abbaiah’s wife says.

The NGO Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA), an organisation working on elimination of manual scavenging, has documented the deaths of four other manual scavenging workers apart from Abbaiah — Sheik Samad, Sheik Jameel, Sheik Ameer Ali, and Alakunta Shankar. The four men died in 2014 after inhaling toxic fumes while they were cleaning a septic tank in an apartment building. However, in an RTI response to TNM, the Nizamabad Municipal Corporation (NMC) said that only Abbaiah’s death has been officially recorded as death caused due to manual scavenging.

The reason? The other four men died while working for private individuals, and therefore the corporation has refused to count them under the Prohibition of Manual Scavenging Act. While the apartment owner reportedly gave a compensation of Rs 50,000 to each victim’s family, they are yet to receive the ex-gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh from the government, according to SKA. While a case was filed by the IV town police, Nizamabad, under section 304 A (causing death by negligence) without invoking sections of Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, against the apartment’s owner, the case has not seen any progress, according to the victims’ families.

Napping on manual scavenging workers’ data

In its RTI reply, the Nizamabad corporation said that they have not identified any manual scavenging workers in the district since 2013, or provided any rehabilitation. This denial of the existence of manual scavenging workers extends to the entire state. In the surveys carried out by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for the identification of Manual Scavengers during the years 2013 and 2018, they did not identify any manual scavenging workers in Telangana.

The district, like most others across the country, has contractualized most sanitation jobs to save money. The contractualization is also an easy excuse to hide behind when it comes to taking accountability for manual scavenging, say activists. The Hyderabad president of Safai Karmachari Andolan, K Saraswathi, says that many sanitation workers continue to get in contact with filth which is considered manual scavenging, though it is prohibited; but instead of defining them as manual scavengers, they are called ‘contract sanitation workers’. “The contractors make them get into the sewers and remove the filth manually and no worker refuses to do such work. They are not aware of their rights. So they end up obliging the employer,” she explains.

A worker from the Armoor Municipality in Nizamabad district who requested anonymity says, “We get into the sewers and remove the filth if it is blocking the pipes. That is our job. We are not aware that we should not do that work. Nobody told us this. All our colleagues do this work. Only on a few occasions were we told to wear gloves while doing this work.”

The denial of the existence of manual scavenging in the district comes even as Nizamabad has been notorious for the inhuman practice at the highest levels of the state. Though a law had prohibited its practice in 1993, a district court in Nizamabad had a staff latrine in its premises which needed to be cleaned manually as recently as in 2005. When the practice was challenged, the court even went to the extent of issuing directives preventing the demolition of the dry latrine.

The brazen atrocity at the Nizamabad court complex became the focus of the SKA in 2004 when it launched a state-wide campaign against dry latrines in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. Even the Mandal Revenue Officer and the Sub-Inspector refused to intervene. It is with the intervention of the Supreme Court that the activists finally succeeded in getting the dry toilet demolished in March 2005, says SKA’s Hyderabad president K Saraswathi.

The Supreme Court’s intervention did little to change the attitude of those who called the shots at the court complex. Activist and author Gita Ramaswamy recalls that the groups fighting against the latrine got Vinod, a worker from the Valmiki community, to strike the first blow during the demolition of the latrine. This act of defiance wasn’t without consequences, Gita Ramaswamy says. “Vinod’s rebellious activity against the administration led to targeted harassment, eventually forcing him to quit work and join the SKA,” Ramaswamy shares.

Not a single manual scavenging worker rehabilitated

Under the Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS), manual scavenging workers are to be provided with a one-time cash assistance of Rs 40,000 towards enabling a change in their livelihood. They must also be given skill training. Besides, manual scavenging and sanitation workers are eligible for concessional loans for self-employment projects upto Rs 15 lakh, with a capital subsidy upto Rs 5 lakh for procurement of instruments/vehicles for mechanised cleaning of sewers and septic tanks, and are also eligible for skill development training for self-employment.

According to the RTI reply from the Municipal Corporation of Nizamabad, the district has not rehabilitated any manual scavenging workers. “The Telangana government says that since 2014 they could not identify any manual scavenger because there are no dry latrines in the state, but what about the ones who were engaging in manual scavenging activity before the state’s formation in 2014?” asks Saraswathi.

Though there is a historical record showing the existence of dry latrines even in government institutions, the Telangana government has not taken any step to identify and rehabilitate former manual scavengers. The Scheduled Caste Development Department which aims to empower the Dalit community and deals with issues of “rehabilitation of Jogins, bonded labour and scavengers” among others have refused to divulge any information about manual scavenging in Telangana. The Department’s Commissioner Yogita Rana, deflected the blame by claiming that the Municipal Administration and Urban Development department looks after manual scavenging. “How can we give such information to the press just like that?” Rana asked TNM.

In Telangana as a whole, only eight people have been given the capital subsidy so far. “Even if the state government provides a one-time settlement under the rehabilitation, it would still be a futile exercise. How is giving a mere Rs 40,000 going to uplift a family? They will still end up doing the same cleaning work,” Shyamlal Taank, ex-president of Telangana Valmiki Methar Pragati, an organisation working for the welfare of the Valmiki community, who have been traditionally forced into manual scavenging.

“Instead, the victims should be provided reservations in government-owned commercial complexes, where they can do other work. That would be real upliftment. We do not want this money. This has been our long standing demand, which we have put forth before even the 1995 National Commission of Safai Karamcharis under the chairmanship of Mangi Lal Arya,” he adds.

A job thrust upon some communities

Large number of Dalit Valmiki families live in Nizamabad town. The communities were brought to the princely state of Hyderabad from Haryana and Delhi by the Nizam-Ul-Haq Asaf Jah’s government between 1855-60 to employ them as manual scavengers, writes activist and author Gita Ramaswamy in her book India Stinking: Manual Scavengers in Andhra Pradesh and their work.

The Dalit communities who are presently engaged in manual scavenging go by different names in different states (Han, Hadi, Balmiki, Dhanuk, Methar, Bhangi, Paki, Mira, Lalbegi, Thotti, Mira, Lalbegi, Chuhra, Balashahi). In Telangana, they are referred to as the Methars, which many in the community say is derogatory. “We go by the name Valmiki; that’s who we are,” Shyamlal asserts. Historically, these communities were agricultural labourers who were eventually made to clean human excreta, when the concept of toilets came to existence.

Before the migrant Valmikis came into the picture, the Madigas and Dheds were doing the cleaning job for the Nizams, these migrants say. The present population of Valmikis in Nizamabad is estimated to be more than 2,500. The community is spread across the state, and mostly is engaged in cleaning work.

Among the 36 victims of manual scavenging in Telangana (since 2002), 18 belong to the Madiga community, categorised as Scheduled Castes and the rest belong to Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes.

Urbanisation has also forced other communities like Chakalis, Vaddaras and Lambadas into manual scavenging. “Most of the people who are cleaning septic tanks are now Lambadas; urbanisation has replaced caste with class,” says Gita Ramaswamy. The observation is seconded by Saraswathi, who has noted that apart from Lambadas, Vaddaras, Chakalis and Mangalis who have migrated from villages in search of employment, have also been pushed into cleaning drainage and septic tanks.

Caste bias in government institutions

Though the practice of manual scavenging was prevalent before British rule, they institutionalised and formalised it in the government administration, Gita Ramaswamy writes in her book. Candidates from Scheduled Caste communities who had specified their caste while applying for government jobs, were inevitably given jobs like sanitation and cleaning, she says. For instance, Bezawada Wilson, the national president of SKA, who had then completed his intermediate education, was given a sanitation job when he had applied for a job with the employment exchange.

And not much has changed in the way the government treats even the victims of manual scavenging. In Hyderabad, three persons – Chandrasekhar, Yadaiah and Madhu (all belonging to the Madiga community) – had died while cleaning a manhole in 2013. They were working for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). However, the wives of all these victims were given a cleaning job – to work as sweepers. “We are not even permanent staff. We are hired on a contract basis,” says Jyotsnarani, wife of Madhu.

Only one person – Sreelatha, wife of Chandrasekhar – is presently working as an attender in the GHMC office in Hyderabad. “After my husband’s death I was given the sweeper job to sustain myself, but I could not continue with that work. Because of the nature of work where I had to sweep the roads, my one-year-old baby had fallen ill. She had a severe infection. After I expressed my concern to the Commissioner, he had given me a job as a housekeeper, but I could not continue with that job, so finally they appointed me as an attender on a temporary basis,” Sreelatha recalls.

Abbaiah’s wife Taradevi engaged in cleaning a government park. Photo: TNM

This is the same situation with Jalli Narsaiah and Darshanam Taradevi’s family. Narsaiah, a resident of Armoor in Nizamabad district died on July 19, 2010, while cleaning a manhole. Initially, Narsaiah’s father working in the Municipality died of ill-health, and his wife Jalli Lakshmi was given the same job. Then Narsaiah also started working with the Municipality. Now that his mother cannot continue with the job anymore due to age-related issues, her son-in-law is now provided with the same cleaning work.

A debt-ridden Taradevi regrets that she could not educate her son well after her husband died. Because of this poor education and the financial problems, Taradevi’s son is working as a garbage collector in the Nizamabad Municipal Corporation.

“Lakshmi’s son-in-law is relatively well-read. The government should at least provide him with some other job. Why do they not think of offering any alternate employment? Is it because they have a caste bias and have been conditioned in such a manner?” Saraswathi questions. No government scheme or policy could ‘liberate’ manual scavengers from their caste and their profession. The work only changed its form, activists closely working with the community say.

This research was supported by a grant from the Thakur Family Foundation. The Foundation has not exercised any editorial control over the contents of this report.

This article was originally published on The News Minute and is republished here with permission.

Why the Andhra Pradesh Government Banned a 100-Year-Old Play

The government decision came after the Arya Vysya community objected to Chintamani Natakam.

The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday, January 17 issued orders to ban Chintamani Natakam, a popular play across the state. The play is particularly enjoyed with much fervour in rural areas.

The government decision came after the Arya Vysya community objected to the 100-year-old play, claiming that it had offensive content that targeted their community. The community has been asking for a ban on the play since 2020. Their grouse is about the portrayal of the character of Subbi Setty, a trader from the Vysya community who is subjected to ridicule. He is shown as a comic character who loses all his wealth owing to his vice of visiting a brothel regularly.

Elated by the government’s decision, M. Dwarkanath, Andhra Pradesh Arya-Vysya Mahasabha president who had given a representation to the chief minister’s office seeking a ban on the play nearly four months ago, told TNM, “Our community has been objecting to the play for several years now, but no government paid heed to it earlier. The present government has reviewed the play and taken the right decision.”

Explaining the objections to the play, he said, “The play has hurt our community’s sentiments.” Referring to the Subbi Setty character, he said, “We are shown as people who are dark, short, and speaking a funny language. This could have been acceptable 100 years ago, but not anymore. It is offensive.”

He added, “Some are asking why not ask the artists to remove the Subbi Setty character, make some changes and allow the play to continue… but the entire play is based on Subbi’s character.”

The play, written in 1920 by social reformer Kallakuri Narayana Rao, is about Chintamani, a courtesan, who attains liberation because of her devotion to Krishna.

“Originally, the play was written as a reformative one with a social message in it. But over the years, several adaptations were made to make it more entertaining, particularly after the entry of ‘recording dance’ (erotic entertainment that branched out from folk dancing), the play turned out to be downright vulgar,” said, Shaik John Basheer, PhD scholar and founding member of the Progressive Theatre Group, University of Hyderabad.

“To appeal to the masses during village festivals, theatre groups have included several sexual innuendos and sexual references in the play with crass language, and desecrated the actual intent of the play,” Basheer observed.

However, objecting to the government’s decision, he said, “It is condemnable. Censorship should never be encouraged. In 1876, the British introduced the Dramatic Performances Act, to curtail dissent expressed through art. The present decision should be seen as an extension of that.”

Some have argued that instead of putting a blanket ban on the play, the government should have asked for changes. The Hindu quoting playwright and actor Govada Venkat said, “All plays contain a good message to society. It is not correct to highlight only a few characters in the drama.” He added, “The government has a right to either remove a character or edit objectionable dialogues. But imposing a ban on the historic play is not correct.”

Observing that the decision of the government will not stand the scrutiny of the courts, social scientist Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd urged the affected artists to approach the high court. “This should not be entertained. If you do not like a play or film, do not watch it. If you do not like a book, do not read it. Banning should not become our prime objective.”

Kancha Ilaiah had earlier faced the wrath of the Vysyas, also known as Banias, when they sought a ban on his book Samajika Smugglerlu: Komatollu. The booklet, published in Telugu in 2017, was extracted from a chapter from his book Post-Hindu India (2009). Objecting to the booklet’s release, as it was titled ‘Social Smugglers: Vysyas’, the community members issued death threats to Kancha Ilaiah, burnt his effigies and books, along with subjecting him to various forms of harassment.

Referring to his own trouble with the community in the past, the social scientist said that they had an influence over the government because of their caste power, which is essentially their monopoly over capital. “Vysyas are a very rich community. So every politician wants to be in their good books. It is not for votes but for their money that governments want to please them,” he said.

This article was first published on The News Minute.

‘He’s Almost 80, How Will He Be in Jail?’ V.V. Rao’s Family Condemns Arrest

Calling it an orchestrated attack to curb dissent, V.V. Rao’s family and others blamed both TRS and BJP.

Activists and intellectuals on Tuesday evening condemned the move by the Pune police to conduct searches across Hyderabad and arrest writer and leftist thinker Varavara Rao.

Speaking to reporters at Sundarayya Vignana Vedika in Hyderabad, those who had gathered demanded that the police release the writer.

While officials refused to comment on the issue, the raids and subsequent arrests were reportedly part of an investigation into plans to allegedly assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a plot that many of those raided have vehemently denied having any knowledge about.

Raids were also conducted in Mumbai, Delhi, Ranchi and Goa, and prominent human rights advocate Sudha Bharadwaj and writer Vernon Gonsalves have been detained.

Among those present at the press meet in Hyderabad were Varavara Rao’s son-in-law, K.V. Kurmanath, a journalist with The Hindu, and Kranthi Tekula, a journalist with Namaste Telangana. The residence of Professor K. Satyanarayana from the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), who is also Rao’s son-in-law, was also raided earlier in the day. He could not be present at the press meet, as searches were continuing at his place as of Tuesday evening.

“They came at 6 am. We asked them if they had an arrest warrant and they said that they didn’t need it. They almost barged in and searched everything. This time, they even raided my daughters’ houses. I want everyone to condemn it. He’s almost 80 years old. I don’t know how he will hold up in prison,” said Hemalatha, Rao’s wife, as she broke into tears.

After hours of questioning the writer at his home in Hyderabad, the police escorted him out, took him for a medical check-up at the state-run Gandhi Hospital and are expected to present him before a local magistrate in the city, before shifting him to Pune.

Speaking about the raid, Kranthi Tekula said, “They came in between 8 am and 9 am in the morning and seized my laptop and phone before I could process anything. I was sleeping when they came. They didn’t tell us anything. My mother is a heart patient and she was extremely worried. When I asked them if my name was mentioned in any FIR, they said that they don’t have my name, but they have clues. They spoke in Marathi and I don’t know what they were speaking.”

Kurmanath, whose house was also raided, told the gathering, “As usual, I went to walking at Indira park, when six to seven people in civil clothes rounded me up and seized my phone. They took me in my car. The entire task was carried at 2 am, I could understand their language. They just did the raid at 6 am. Apart from seizing my phone and cutting my landline, they seized my laptop which had all my children’s photos. I don’t even have a copy of it. The Telangana police also aided them in this atrocity. When police asked me about a book, I told them that it was a book about a Telangana martyr. But, the Telangana police said to them that the book was that of a Maoist.”

Those who had gathered, also lashed out at Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

“KCR has done total ‘Padabhishekam’ to Modi. His idea is to make his son, K.T. Rama Rao, a CM. He has colluded with Modi and has attacked us,” Kurmanath alleged, adding, “It is the state police who helped the Maharashtra police. Ahead of elections, to thwart dissent, this has been done. On one hand, KCR will get appreciation from Modi and on the other, he has managed to curb those who were critical of his government.”

A letter in Marathi was also handed to Kurmanath, that sought for his arrest, for ‘aiding’ Vara Vara Rao’s activities.

Speaking to TNM after the event, Kurmanath added, “This entire plot is devised to garner Hindutva support. Modi is already losing support and he wants to gather sympathy by stating that a Hindu leader is going to be killed. This Bhima Koregaon, an assertion of Dalits is a barricade to the Hindutva politics, so they want to taint it.”

“It is an orchestrated attack to curb dissent. Both TRS and BJP, which is losing popularity, keeping elections in mind, have done this. The government doesn’t want activists to side with Dalits, Muslims and other marginalised communities. The assassination letter was fabricated by them (police), and used as evidence to arrest innocent people,” said Professor C. Kasim from the Osmania University.

“After several hours of harassment, before leaving, they gave a panchanama document, which was written in Marathi. Panchanama should be written in a language that the accused can understand. We don’t know what’s written in it. They could have written that there was a bomb recovered also,” said Venugopal, the editor of Veekshanam.

Meanwhile, in a video statement released online, CPI national secretary K. Narayana said, “We strongly condemn the arrest of well-known Left intellectual Varavara Rao. How can the Pune police come here conduct a search? What is the state government doing and behaving as if nothing is happening? From when the Modi government has come into power, they are trying to kill intellectuals.”

“They killed Govind Pansare, Gauri Lankesh and M.M. Kalburgi and they have also imprisoned G.N. Saibaba. They have arrested Varavara Rao only with the intention of killing him. Is the prime minister really that weak, to be killed so easily?” he asked.

Background

In June, police in Pune had allegedly recovered a letter mentioning a plan to assassinate Modi from the house of one of the five persons arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence.

The letter written by a person identified only as ‘R’ reportedly mentions a plot to kill the Prime Minister on the lines of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

It also referred to requirement of Rs 8 crore to purchase a M-4 rifle and four lakh rounds to execute the plot. The letter reportedly mentions Varvara Rao’s name.

Varvara Rao, who heads ‘Virasam’, an association of revolutionary writers, had strongly denied the allegations. He had said that all five arrested in the case were working for the betterment of downtrodden.

Speaking to reporters in Hyderabad at the time, Rao had said, “I have absolutely nothing to do with the claims made in the letter. The police cannot do anything other than arrest me and foist false cases against me. The people arrested by the Pune police had all been working for the downtrodden and the release of political prisoners. They are not involved in murder politics.”

He had also alleged that the letter was planted.

With inputs from Nitin B.

This article was first published on The News Minute. Read the original here.