The Gram Nyayalaya Act: The New Face of the Judiciary
(A draft report on a roundtable conducted by the Anveshi Law Initiative on 19th September 2009)
Vasudha Nagaraj
The Gram Nyayalayas Act received the assent of the President in January 2009. The Act proposes to set up a Magistrate’s court at the Mandal level. In a press release issued on Gandhi Jayanti, the Centre announced that there shall be 5000 new courts across the country, that it shall spend approximately 1400 crores for its institution[1]. Interestingly the same press release adds that the Centre is drawing a road map for judicial reforms. That the setting up of the Gram Nyayalaya is an important measure to reduce the arrears of the courts in the subordinate courts and that it is estimated that it will cut the arrears by 50%. Any discussion of law reform either by the Chief Justice or the Law Minister have touched upon the setting up of these courts primarily in terms of its impact on reduction of pendency of cases in subordinate courts.
It is true that the large volume of pendency of cases is a crippling feature of the Indian judiciary. The long drawn proceedings wear out the litigant, especially if she is poor and weak in her resources. There is no doubt that speedy disposal is crucial both for the litigant as well as the institutional mandates. An emphasis on speedy disposal raises doubts if these are moves which are being made to manage the arrears of the cases or to enable better access to the litigant-people. Surely long pendency is not the only issue which affects a litigant’s life in the courts. In the case of the Gram Nyayalayas, a court that is closer to the rural litigant and a speedy disposal are definitely laudable objective of the legal system. The Act resounds with the language of the alternate dispute redressal such as plea-bargaining in criminal cases, mediation, conciliation and settlement in civil cases. Several lingering doubts exist about the other motives of establishing these courts. A roundtable was organized in Hyderabad on 19 September 2009 with several lawyers practicing in District Courts to discuss the scope, possibilities and agendas of the institution of these new courts. The following is a report of the main issues that came up in the discussion. Before moving into the discussion in the Round Table, it is important to dwell briefly on the background of this concept and the description of this new court.
Background to the Concept of the Gram Nyayalaya
The concept of the Gram Nyayalaya was proposed by the 114th Law Commission (LC) report way back in 1986. The report recommends the concept of the Gram Nyayalaya with two objectives in mind. In its first recommendation it proposes that a participatory forum of justice can be introduced through the institution of the Gram Nyayalaya. The second objective was that these courts would tackle the backlog and ever increasing arrears of the District and High Courts. This is the reason why the appeal from the decisions of the Gram Nyayalaya is limited to the District Courts, an important measure in cutting the arrears of the High Court. To make it participatory the Law Commission recommended that the Magistrate be accompanied by two laypersons who shall act as Judges. It was envisaged that the legal training of the Magistrate would be complemented by the knowledge of the laypersons who would bring in the much required socio-economic aspects to adjudication. However this plan has been set aside in the current Act and we find the Gram Nyayalaya manned by the Judicial First Class Magistrate.
It is interesting to note that the Law Commission observes that a Gram Nyayalaya would be ideally suited for the villages as the nature of disputes coming before such a court would be ‘simple, uncomplicated and easy of solution’. It is in such a context that they propose that the Nyayalaya ‘should not be enmeshed in procedural claptrap’. Here again a comparison is made with the dispute resolution mechanisms of the village society where the solution is fast and on the spot. The report repeatedly refers to how a boundary dispute between two lands should not be enmeshed in the time consuming procedures of the universal practices of the Civil Procedure Code. The assumptions about village litigation being simple and quick to resolution are a problematic one which came up repeatedly in the Round Table.
Gram Nyayalaya: A Different Court
The Gram Nyayalaya is a new tier of courts added to the existing hierarchy of courts. In every district headquarters there are sessions courts and civil courts in addition to special courts such as Consumer Courts, Family Courts, SC/ST Atrocities Courts, Labour Courts and Permanent Lok Adalat. Additionally we also have Fast Track Courts. The next tier is the junior civil judges and Magistrates manning civil cases and criminal cases respectively. Often there are courts in which the civil and criminal jurisdiction is clubbed. In all probability the Gram Nyayalayas may be instituted in Mandal headquarters. The Gram Nyayalaya is a combination of the powers of the Junior Civil Judge and the Magistrate as well as well as an additional jurisdiction.
The functioning of this court will be different from the already existing courts having similar jurisdiction, in terms of its objectives, procedure and jurisdiction.
- The Gram Nyayalaya will be a mobile one and will conduct its proceedings in close proximity to the cause of action.
- The proceedings will be carried out in the local language.
- The court fees for any of the civil claims will not exceed Rs 100 irrespective of the worth of the property involved.
- In criminal cases the proceedings will be of a summary nature.
- In civil cases, in execution proceedings, the court will not be bound by the Code of Civil Procedure and will be guided by principles of natural justice.
- The Nyayalaya may accept documents that may not be strictly admissible under the Indian Evidence Act.
- All the orders (except consent orders) of the Nyayalaya can be appealed in the District Court and no further.
- In criminal cases the accused can petition the court for plea-bargaining.
The Magistrate presiding in this court will be called a Nyayadhikari, and the court itself called Gram Nyayalaya, a move hitherto unknown to the judiciary. The Nyayadhikari will combine the functions of both a Junior Civil Judge and a Magistrate. In addition to her regular adjudicative functions, the Nyayadhikari, will wherever possible, assist, persuade and conciliate the parties in arriving at a settlement.
Gram Nyayalaya’s jurisdiction not only covers civil and criminal cases but also extends to claims and offences arising under the Payment of Wages Act, Minimum Wages Act, Equal Remuneration Act, Protection of Civil Rights Act, Bonded Labour System Act, Domestic Violence Act and Maintenance cases under the Criminal Procedure Code. Additionally, the state government can also append its own list of offences and claims to the schedules of cases tried by this court. The jurisdiction for this court is a special one with emphasis on disputes arising in the context of the village. Thus we have disputes regarding irrigation and water channels, boundary lines, pastures and so on.
Issues in the roundtable
About eighty lawyers practicing in Rangareddy, Warangal and Nalgonda courts attended the roundtable. Broadly speaking the discussion veered around the following issues:
a) The Gram Nyayalaya is the latest in the trend of reforms coming up in the structure of the judiciary. In the context of reduction of arrears fast track Courts and Lok Adalats were introduced. Fast track Courts, entirely funded by the Central government, were instituted in the first phase from 2000 to 2005 and in the second phase from 2005-2010. These courts were set-up with the significant objective of reducing the pendency of criminal cases. Speedy disposal was the key term in their institution. Similarly Lok Adalats were instituted in order to provide for non-adversarial ways of resolving disputes. What began as temporary Lok Adalats in 1982 are now permanent institutions in very district court in Andhra Pradesh. It is noted that several matrimonial cases and motor accident claims are taken to these courts for resolution. In the same context one can also discuss the Family Courts which again espouse speedy disposal, sensitive approach and relaxation of strict rules of evidence and procedure. The character and features of the Gram Nyayalaya is a combination of these three courts. Speedy disposal, flexibility of procedure and mediation in contrast to the full trial emphasized in adversarial process are the key concepts animating judicial reforms in contemporary legal institutions.
b) Village litigation is a complex issue. For a foot of land there are instances where people have initiated cumbersome litigations. The proximity of these courts may lead to more litigation among family members or among neighbors too. What could be resolved with the help of local and customary mechanisms may end up being trapped in these courts. In a way these courts, with its judges and conciliators, will invalidate existing mechanisms of managing disputes in the villages. The new Act says that all suits irrespective of the value of property may be registered with just 100 rupees. While standardizing court fees is indeed enables access to the poorer litigant, it may also lead to excessive litigation. A rich farmer may find it cheaper to trap a poorer farmer into litigation about a boundary dispute .
c) The relaxation of rules of evidence is a troubling feature, especially the rule about admission of documents, even if they are not considered relevant by the Law of Evidence. It is well known that the parties to a dispute are drawn from unequal powers and resources. A more powerful man may be able to play the rules of the law much more to his advantage. His ability to introduce various elements of documentary evidence to counter check the opponent is also well know. It is not that the strict relevancy of documents as stipulated by the Evidence Code has helped the poorer litigant. But at least there has been a standard regarding admission of documents in a trial. However in the Gram Nyayalaya Act this departure from the standard may work either way.
d) The flexibility about procedures and evidence also depends on the Judge presiding in these courts. The discretion Judges exercise in the courts is something unique to each judge. Much depends upon how she would deploy these new aspects of procedure and evidence in the courts. It is common knowledge that some Judges are extremely rule bound while some are not. Some tend to use discretion quite freely which may also tend to become arbitrary. In whose defense and in whose cause will this discretion be used, remains a prickly issue.
e) All proceedings in criminal cases have been made into a summary one. Two important aspects of a summary trial are that charges are not framed and only the gist of evidence is recorded. It was felt that that making summary trial mandatory for all offences tried by the Gram Nyayalaya could be a serious limitation in view of the expanded jurisdiction of these courts. It was queried about what could be gained if full recording of the evidence is given up in favor of the summary recording. What constitutes the ‘gist of evidence’ is something that gets decided by the judge. Assessing the ‘gist of evidence’ clearly involves the decision and discretion of the judge. As it is there is plenty of discretion in how the Judge hears the witness and what he deems important to record. The recording of evidence is often a contested issue leading to many a confrontation between the Bar and the Bench.
f) Plea-bargaining and conciliation: Some apprehension was expressed about the provision of these two aspects in criminal and civil cases. K Balagopal in his note about the Gram Nyayalaya Act commented that the provision of plea-bargaining for all the offences triable in this court is harmful. He pointed that for cases filed by workers under the Minimum Wages Act or women under Domestic Violence Act, plea bargaining would wield lot of pressure on the victims to close the case, which may be detrimental to the interests of the victims. He opined that that law reformers are especially enamoured by provisions such as plea-bargaining and conciliation which are shortcuts to the procedures of real justice.
g) On a more hopeful note, some of the lawyers expressed that the Gram Nyayalayas would be helpful for those people living in remote Mandals of a district. Bheemarjun Reddy, practicing lawyer from Nalgonda gave instances of how, sometimes the rural litigant travels long distances and even sleeps overnight in the court complex to attend her case the following day. He also contradicted the general opinion that such courts would invalidate the existing local mechanisms of solving disputes. He felt that much of the local dispute redressal has been made over into the hands of the goondas, party leaders and police stations. Despite being local and customary, these forums have become expensive and time consuming for the common man. More importantly he pointed out that the interventions of the local mechanisms were not firm enough in concluding the dispute. A similar opinion was also expressed by women from Mahila Samata Programme who welcomed a legal sanctity to the conclusion of disputes in women’s cases.
h) On the proximity of the court to the cause of action and the litigant the following issues were raised. Apart from making it easier for the litigant to reach the court it was opined that the litigant would be able to mobilize her community and impact the procedure in the court. The presence of the litigant’s community in the court provides the much-required show of strength as well as enabling negotiations. A court which is at a closer distance allows the poorer litigant to mobilize her supporters. Here, it was also distinguished that not all petitions to the court are individual claims alone. Some petitions to the court arise from an injury or a violation which affects a community as a whole. K Sajaya cited the example of Chunduru wherein the Special Court tried the batch of offences under the SC/ST Atrocities Act in the village where the massacre had taken place. The Special Court was instituted in response to the specific demand from the Dalit community of Chunduru that the court should adjudicate in their village. On the other hand it was also argued that the proximity of the court might allow for the more powerful litigants to influence the judge.
At the end of the roundtable which lasted for more than four hours, one could not arrive at a fixed assessment about how these new courts will function. There was a dominant reaction that these courts are being set-up with an ulterior motive of ‘managing litigation’ and that it had the single purpose of reducing the pendency of cases. Whether speedy disposal meant speedy justice for the poorer litigant was a recurring question. One was also not sure about what to draw from the other new courts such as fast track courts or the Lok Adalats. About family courts it was clearly the case that the provisions which promised a new definition of court for the issues of the family have not been functioning anywhere near its ideal. To do away with lawyers’ representation or the flexibility of procedure always depended on the particular judge who presided in the courtroom.
[1] It has decided to meet the non-recurring expenditure on these courts to a ceiling of 18 lakhs and that it shall share with the states the recurring expenditure on these courts for the first three years.
****************************
Cultures of Criticism: Filmic Views from a Different Islamic Location
14th October – 31st October
Film: Close Up
14th October at Anveshi Meeting Hall at 4.30 PM
Pretending to be Mohsin Makhmalbaf, Ali Sabzian enters a well-to-do family in Tehran on the pretext of making his next movie. He is caught after he borrows money on the pretext of financing a film and is brought to trial. The actual people involved in the incident re-enact the incidents after which the movie continues to film Ali’s trial in the court, with the camera also playing the role of a judge and the director asking a few questions.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Duration: One hour forty minutes
Language: Persian with English subtitles
Film: Divorce – Iranian Style
23rd October, EFLU New Academic Building, at 5.00PM
24th October, Anveshi Meeting Hall, at 3.30 PM
This film documents the everyday functioning of a small Iranian family court: of women filing for divorce, demanding meher, custody of children or seeking to threaten the husbands with divorce. While the formal family laws favour men, the court proceedings reveal a different picture – of women fighting for their due in marriage and divorce, sometimes in the face of imminent defeat. For anyone who has been inside an Indian family court, the similarities in women’s battles and the dissimilarities between the Indian and Iranian courts are difficult to miss. This documentary was made for Channel 4 of BBC.
Made by: Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini
Duration: One hour fifty five minutes
Language: English voice over, conversations in Persian
Film: Leila
31st October, Anveshi Meeting Hall, at 3.30 PM
Leila is the story of a young couple whose life begins to change when they come to know that she cannot conceive. Under the pressure of mother in law, Leila persuades her much-reluctant husband to take a second wife, despite the explicit opposition of the rest of her marital family. Thereafter unable to reconcile to it, she leaves the marital home, devastated. While Reza and Leila do not take divorce, her husband’s second marriage does not last. Delicately portraying a critical social issue, Leila went on to become the most watched film in Iran in 1998.
Director: Dariush Mehrjui
Duration: Two hours four minutes
Language: Persian with English subtitles
Background Note:
Steeped in Perso-Islamic culture, Iranian films offer refreshingly interesting perspectives for students of modern democracy, contemporary Islam and Muslims. For Indian researchers and teachers seeking to understand or explain the cultures, laws, traditions, practices and institutions of Muslims in India, Iran and its films present interesting possibilities. To begin with, these films can tell us how a self-confidently Muslim culture would offer critiques of Islamic laws, societal culture, familial relations, and other national institutions. They would tell us that each of the Muslim cultures may be Islamic in a unique sense, inflected by inherited notions of culture, history and the contemporary norms governing their societies. Consequently, they may help in locating Indian critiques of Islam and Muslims - as hailing from a culture where the governing norm is secularism. Anveshi Law Initiative intends to screen a few Iranian films hoping to raise a discussion around such possible readings.
Currently engaged in researching the relationship of Muslim minorities and Law in India, for Anveshi, these films assumed importance also to explore questions such as: how do Muslim women negotiate a modern democratic theological state; how do imaginaries of Iranian cinema deal with Muslim women in such situations; what notions of justice and Islamic norms inform and animate the critical sensibilities of Iranian cinema.
To recapture the context of new Iranian cinema briefly: Iran’s Islamic revolution shook the world nearly thirty years ago in 1978, paving the way for a new discussion about democracy, modernity, revolution and Islam. Post revolutionary Iran’s attempts to institute Islamic values, culture and law, while annoying for Europe and the US turned out to be a deeply contested process with-in Iran. Even a slightly non-superficial knowledge of Iranian politics and history would tell us that neither the meaning of Islamic values, culture and law nor the question of an Islamic state as the harbinger of this process has been ever settled in Iran, including now. Iranian Cinema, along with other institutions, also became an important locus of such contestations. Several directors, script writers, actors who supported the revolution actively participated in the shaping of the post-revolutionary cinema. This included a significant number of women. Working through the censorship norms and promotional schemes, they fashioned a tradition of cinema that is now acknowledged to be immensely rich, having evolved critical philosophical filmic language steeped in the Perso-Islamic culture. Dealing with divergent themes such as war with Iraq, problems of Kurds, Afghan refugees, gender relations, issues of childhood and poverty, disability, courts or Shariat law, they have evolved a self-conscious cultural critique of the society and government, offering perspectives on justice and law, from within norms of Perso-Islamic culture.
Shirly Mary Joseph, 24th September 2009
Shirly Mary Joseph spoke on “Writing for Tribal Children: Reflections from Kanavu Educational Initiative”. She narrated in a thoughtful manner how she and her husband, K.J.Baby founded Kanavu, a school for tribal children in Cheengode, Nadavayal of Wayanad district in North Kerala. Working with students to overcome a history of bondage, Kanavu stressed on education that enhanced tribal children’s sense of self and their cultures. Learning through practice, example and experience has been given emphasis in the school. Students got trained in music, painting, dance, theatre or martial arts. They also got equipped to sit for competitive exams as well. Kanavu students now work for organizations outside Kerala and have earned a formidable reputation as performers of traditional tribal dances and folk songs in Kerala. The school is run on income from students’ performances and is now managed by a board consisting solely of ex-students.
Round Table Discussion on Gram Nyayalaya: The New Face of the Judiciary, 19th September 2009.
This round table was organized by Anveshi Research Centre for Women’ Studies and Human Rights Forum. The following note was circulated in Telugu and English to all the participants.
The Gram Nyayalaya Act, 2008 An Introductory Note
The Gram Nyayalayas Act received the assent of the President in January 2009. The Act proposes to set up a court for every panchayat or a group of panchayats across the country. The objective of the Act is twofold. One, to provide ‘access to justice to the citizens at their doorsteps’ and two, to ‘ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of social, economic or other disabilities’.
Salient features of the Act:
1. The judge presiding in this court is designated as a Nyayadhikari, and the court itself called Gram Nyayalaya, a move quite novel to the judiciary. The Nyayadhikari will combine the judicial functions of both a Junior Civil Judge and a Magistrate. It is explicitly stated that the Nyayadhikari in addition to her regular adjudicative functions, will wherever possible, assist, persuade and conciliate the parties in arriving at a settlement. There will be a panel of official conciliators to help the judge in such mediations.
2. The functioning of this court has been planned differently from that of the existing courts, in terms of its objectives, procedure and jurisdiction.
· The Nyayalaya will be a mobile one and will conduct its proceedings in close proximity to the cause of action.
· The proceedings will be carried out in the local language.
· The court fees for any of the civil claims will not exceed Rs 100 irrespective of the worth of the property involved.
· In civil cases, in execution proceedings, the court will not be bound by the Code of Civil Procedure and will be guided by principles of natural justice.
· The Nyayalaya may accept documents that may not be admissible under the Indian Evidence Act.
· All the orders (except consent orders) of the Nyayalaya can be appealed in the District Court and no further.
3. The Gram Nyayalaya’s jurisdiction has been expanded presumably to suit the litigation arising in villages.
· Claims and offences arising under the Payment of Wages Act, Minimum Wages Act, Equal Remuneration Act, Protection of Civil Rights Act, Bonded Labour System Act.
· Domestic Violence Act and Maintenance cases under the CrPC.
· Civil disputes which covers rights of use of pastures, water channels, shared cultivation, forest produce and other disputes regarding right to purchase of property and use of village and farm houses.
· On the criminal side all those offences which are punishable upto a period of two years; theft and retaining stolen property where the value of the stolen property is not more than 20,000 rupees; criminal intimidation, breach of peace and attempts and abetments of the foregoing offences.
· Additionally, the state government can also append its own list of offences and claims to the schedules of cases tried by the Magistrate.
How did this Act come about?
The concept of the Gram Nyayalaya was proposed by the 114th Law Commission (LC) report in 1986. Such a proposal is made, the report argues, keeping in mind the long history of customary dispute resolution in villages which was local, speedy and inexpensive. The Nyayalaya is proposed as the statutory avatar of these existing practices. The LC report also explains there are two objectives backing this proposal. The first is to introduce a participatory forum of justice and the other is to address the backlog and ever increasing arrears of the District and High Courts. In the LC’s recommendations the judge was accompanied by two lay judges in order to combine the legal expertise with knowledge of local practices. But this aspect has been set aside in the current Act and the Nyayalaya now has a single judge.
The LC also observed that a Nyayalaya would be ideally suited for the villages as the nature of disputes coming before such a court would be ‘simple, uncomplicated and easy of solution’. Such being the nature of dispute, the LC recommended that the Nyayalaya ‘should not be enmeshed in procedural claptrap’. Accordingly the new court is being asked to use its discretion, to conciliate, to depart from the Codes of Procedure and Evidence and to follow principles of natural justice.
What could be the implications?
In Andhra Pradesh, there are 1,124 Mandals covering 21,807 Gram Panchayats. Each district in the state has about 40-60 Mandals. As of now the lowest tier of judiciary, Junior Civil Judge/Magistrate courts, exist in the district headquarters and select Mandals. For instance, in Warangal district there are 51 Mandals of which only 6 Mandals have courts. At the other end of the spectrum is Guntur district which has 57 Mandals and has 25 courts at the Mandal level. But, on an average there are not more than 10-15 courts in Mandal headquarters per district. If the new Act is actually going to set-up these courts at every panchayat level, it will be gigantic in terms of the thousands of courts that will be established in each state.
Undoubtedly, the proposal that courts should be closer to the litigant has been a long standing demand of several movements in the country. Simplification of procedure, a non-adversarial resolution and sensitive dealing of cases are also familiar demands. Even as there is a popular context, one is also a little anxious about the agendas underlying the establishment of these courts. Now that it is legislated, there are several questions being raised about this new court:
· What would be the practical difficulties for the Nyayadhikari in being ‘neutral and wise’ when she is so close to the cause of action?
· How will ‘proximity’ affect the trial processes?
· What will be the nature of adjudication or conciliation if it begins with the assumption that village litigation is simple and capable of being resolved on the spot?
· Is the setting up of these courts more a mechanism to manage and filter the disputes in villages and thereby reduce the institution of cases in the higher courts.
· How will ‘simplification of procedure’ be deployed in adjudications which draws litigants of unequal resources?
· Would the founding of such courts invalidate existing customary dispute resolution forums in villages?
Anveshi- Centre for Regional Studies, University of Hyderabad collaborative workshop on “Towards a Critique of Development Thinking”, 7th to 11th September, 2009.
This is a report about the workshop called “Towards a Critique of Development Thinking” that Anveshi did with Centre for Regional Studies at HCU from 7th to 11th September. It was organized around the readings from the Development Reader manuscript edited by R. Srivatsan, Senior Fellow of Anveshi. There were five sessions in all, with Srivats presenting five selected components from the Reader, followed by a detailed response by a discussant from HCU, and discussion with the research scholars. The faculty and the scholars were drawn from different departments of social sciences.
The first session was on Indian planning models (Lewis and Mahalanobis) and the discussant was Dr. Ramana Murthy, from Economics department. Second session was on the Mode of Production debates in the seventies, the discussant being Dr. Purendra Prasad from Sociology; third was on Dependency theories, the discussant being Dr. Vamsicharan from Economics dept; fourth was on Indian state, discussant being Dr. Janardhan from Sociology; fifth was on Boserup and Amartya Sen, response was from Prof. Omkar from Economics. Discussants in general agreed with the analytical commentary of Srivats' headnotes; drew attention to the broader context of analyses, models, histories in which these selected readings need to be placed; had a few questions why these, not others were selected. More substantially, the discussants were keen to know the standpoint from which Srivats was offering his critique; wanted him to elaborate his framework and objectives; wanted to know whether he is offering an alternative or rejecting development.
Scholars attended in large number, 40 to 45, drawn from economics, sociology, political science and a small portion from history. Anthropologists were not represented well. The inquiries of scholars (only a few of whom had read the readings that were circulated in soft copy form) was towards clarifications on issues raised in the course of lectures; selections of readings; opinions, agreements or disagreements about Srivats' analysis of debates or thinkers. Some, of course, were trying to test Srivats' knowledge.
At the end of the workshop, a feedback form was circulated in which most of the participants gave 7 out of 10 for the workshop. Most found the Mode of Production debate session difficult to follow. Others found the lack of debate on environment and development stark. But in general, they said that they found the workshop very useful. Sudha, an ex-Anveshi Short Term Fellow was there too, along with many of her colleagues in the department. She and her friends, she said, had difficulty following the first two sessions but by the fifth day began to follow where the discussion was going.
The faculty who were discussants also found the workshop to be useful, saying that they now have new insights into the old debates; that Srivats' analysis filled in some gaps in their own understanding of development debates. Also they found this idea of a workshop on development quite interesting,
Prof. Sheela Prasad anchored the entire programme, not only for the arrangements, but pulling in the faculty, persuading them to be discussants, encouraging students to register for the workshop; and being there all through - to see to it that the scholars participated in the discussions; giving feedback to Srivats about whether the scholars were able to follow what was happening in the session or to tune the lecture so that they could follow. While Srivats and the discussants focused on the actual readings, Sheela saw to it that the discussion was inclusive and useful, going beyond economics and Marxism!
Some Anveshi members attended a few sessions. It felt good to be going back to the University, doing the kind of workshop that I wish somebody had done for me when I was there! It is a useful experiment, which one can think of repeating with a different audience.
Book launch of Streevaada Rajakeeyalu: Vartamaana Charchalu
14th March 2009
Book launch programme of Streevaada Rajakeeyalu: Vartamaana Charchalu was held on 14th March 2009. Dr.Vinodini, well-known Dalit writer (Vemana University, Cuddpah), Dr.Katyayani Vidmahe (Kakatiya Univeristy, Warangal), Dr.K.Lakshmi (Osmania University) and Dr.K.Chenna Basavaiah (Osmania University) spoke at the meeting. Dr.Vinodini highlighted the importance of caste to discussions of dalit women’s issues in feminism. Dr.Katyayani Vidmahe said that the book will not only be useful for researchers working on women’s issues, but for political scientists, historians and other social scientists. She highlighted the problems of lack of resource material in Telugu for researchers from vernacular background. Dr.Chenna Basavaiah discussed how this book would be useful for those thinking about issues in political science and Indian politics. Dr.K.Lakshmi drew attention to the paucity of thinkable material on women’s issues in Telugu. The meeting was well attended.
Dr.Sanal Mohan spoke on
“Ethnography of a ‘Civilizing Mission’: Situating the Missionaries and Dalits in the twentieth century Kerala” on 10th March 2009.
This presentation addressed the interface of the missionaries and dalits in colonial Kerala. Stepping aside from the ‘modernization’ framework and reading the missionary archive against the grain, it tried to analyze the multiple ways in which dalits struggled to evolve new subjectivity and claim agency. By bringing together the archival and the ethnographic data, it attempted to open up dalit experience of modernity in Kerala, analyzing the multiple ways in which such experiences have been narrativised and discusses the dimensions of power involved in them.
Dr.Sanal Mohan is an ethnographer-historian whose path-breaking research has brought into focus Dalit history and identity formation in colonial and post colonial Kerala. He is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Department of History, Atlanta.
Dr.Ram Rawat spoke on
'Reclaiming a Past: The Formulation of a Dalit Agenda by Chamars in Early 20th Century Uttar Pradesh' on 10th January, 2009
Dr. Ram Rawat gave a brief talk on Chamars and the public sphere in the United Provinces in the early twentieth century. His talk uncovered an unexplored layer of political action among the Chamars in that region. Tracing the widespread network of political activism in the districts, in contestation of the claims of the nationalists over specific issues during the freedom movement, Rawat subtly explored the genealogy of the contemporary Dalit movement in the ‘anti-national’ struggles of the subaltern castes during the early Twentieth Century. In the process, he uncovered for the audience a surprising perspective on the way in which these castes fought their battles. The talk also made for a sobering understanding of the blind spots and suppressions of mainstream Indian history. The role of the subaltern castes is an interesting ‘new’ domain which is being explored by Dalit thinkers today.